Power He Knows Not

Crowning Truth

That same night, Harry snuck out of the dormitory and to the seven floor corridor, determined to face the boggart, and start his search anew.

Actually facing the creature was another thing entirely, but he managed to hit it with the spell on the first cast. With a deafening crack! that echoed through the cathedral sized room, the boggart became taller and lankyer, with fiery red hair, and a long thin nose. In an instant, it was Ron who stood before him, a dark look in his blue eyes, and a sneer on his face.

Harry was ready this time however, and he cast the charm again, - Riddle-Harry appeared - and Harry knew he would never be able to defeat it on his own. He spotted an open desk drawer behind the boggart, and sent it toppling into it with a depulso. He flicked his wrist, and the drawer closed, the click of the lock was loud in the sudden silence, but was quickly followed by a bang! as the desk shuddered.

He was much more careful in his searching after that. Running into a group of pixies, and even a couple small creatures he was pretty sure were imps.

He did not find the diadem that night, nor the next, nor even after that. His sleep was still torn by nightmares, and his classes distracted his thoughts much better, now that he was back to sitting with Ron and Hermione. He would still sit with Neville on occasion, but now he pulled his best friends with him, rather then trying to avoid them.

As much as he longed to drop Divination, (and Riddle also insisted he should) he didn't want to leave Ron like that. They had both known Divination was a ludacris class, but had chosen to at least have one friendly person as their classmate.

Harry was really regretting his choice. It seemed that every class, Trelawney foretold his imminent doom, and he was tired of hearing the gruesome ways he would die.

Care of Magical Creatures had also fallen from favor with most of the class. While the first lesson had been interesting, and even exciting, the incident with Malfoy seemed to have dampened Hagrid's enthusiasm. Now every lesson was spent looking after flobberworms, which were some of the most boring creatures to ever live, and had to be force fed lettuce as they seemed disinclined, or possibly incapable, to even take care of themselves in the slightest.

The start of October brought with it cooler temperatures, and the start of Quidditch season. Harry was rather glad of the distraction from classes and his seemingly endless search for the diadem.

Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, was even more pumped then usual, giving the whole team a rousing speech at their first meeting of the season.

One evening, about a week into October, Harry returned from practice to find the entire common room abuzz with excitement.

"What's happened?" He asked Ron and Hermione, as he plopped into an armchair near where they were sitting by the fire.

"First Hogsmeade weekend." Ron said excitedly, looking up from his star chart that was due in their next astronomy class. "It's the end of October. On Halloween."

"Excellent." Fred chimed in, "I need to stop at Zonko's for some more stink pellets."

Harry felt his good mood slip away. The Hogsmeade trip would not interfere with his plans to search the Room of Requirement, but he would rather be with his friends enjoying the village.

He zoned out of most of the conversation after that, Hermione and Ron were arguing over if Harry should find a way to go or not, when suddenly Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, leapt on Ron's bag, digging his claws into the fabric as Ron snatched it up, trying to shake him off.