Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter one-hundred-forty-six

"Get under here," Harry said as he, Faith and Luna walked down the stairs. He had taken his Invisibility Cloak from his pocket. "You too, Faith, please," He said directly after, already seeing Faith's protest. 

"Harry -"

"Faith, please, for once," Harry pleaded whilst Luna already hurried under the Cloak with him. "To set me at rest,"

"Damn you, Potter, using my feelings against me," Faith mumbled before she quickly dived under Harry's arm. 

Harry covered them with the Cloak but their feet were still definitely visible so Faith shortened herself a tiny bit, not wanting to use her abilities too much in case she desperately needed it later. It tired her a lot on some days. 

Harry's hand reached out to the solid wall they stood in front off and it melted away at his touch. They were in a dark corridor. Harry reached into the pouch around his neck and took out the Marauder's Map to see where they were. 

"We're up on the fifth floor," He whispered once he found the dots with their names. "Come on, this way,"

Despite the many times Faith and Harry already wandered around the castle at night, their hearts were beating like rabbits'. It had never been this important and yet dangerous to creep through the corridors. Whenever they passed a light, they stopped to check the Map to see if anyone was approaching them, whilst Luna led them to the Ravenclaw Tower. They stopped to let ghosts pass twice, but were lucky that Peeves hadn't come by yet. That would be a nightmare.

"This way," Luna whispered, pulling on Harry's sleeve to lead them up a spiral staircase. The number of times they circled up the tower was uncountable, partly because of how dizzy it made them and partly because of the adrenaline. 

All the way at the top, they reached a thick door. There was no handle or keyhole, just a bronze knocker that had the shape of an eagle. 

Luna knocked once and almost instantly an eerie voice sounded. The beak of the eagle moved as it spoke a riddle for them; "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?"

"Hmm ... what do you think, Faith?" Luna asked, leaning over to see Faith. 

"What? Isn't there just a password?" Faith asked confused.

"Oh, no, you've got to answer the question," Luna told her.

"What if you get it wrong?" Harry asked fearfully.

"Well, you have to wait for somebody who gets it right," Luna said. "That way you learn, you see?"

"Yeah ... trouble is, we can't really afford to wait for anyone else, Luna,"

"No, I see what you mean," Luna nodded solemnly before turning back to the door. "Well, then, I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning,"

"Well reasoned," The voice from the eagle knocker said, and the heavy door swung open. 

The Ravenclaw common room was completely deserted. It was much wider and circular than the Gryffindor common room in the Gryffindor Tower. It had gracefully tall windows that reached all the way to the ceiling and covered by silky blue curtains. 

When Faith looked up she could see that the ceiling was painted with stars and the carpeted floor seemed to have a similar pattern. There were tables and chairs - armchairs - and couches, but right across the door was the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. 

She had an expression on her face that Faith couldn't decide was a smile or just a puzzling look. She was beautiful yet intimidating. They walked closer to see how the diadem looked like. Harry could just spot the finest engraving on the diadem so he stepped out from under the Cloak to get a closer look.