LOST ↝ G. WEASLEY [1]

12 | The Secret Passage

"Well, that's new," Nicolette said one day, looking up from her homework to see a new painting hanging against one wall of the Room of Requirement. "am I blind, or has that not always been there?"

"It's new to me," Neville said, standing up and curiously walking over towards it, Joey quickly following suit.

Throughout the room, the walls were completely barren, matching the rest of the castle. However, now a new painting adorned the wall, depicting a young woman standing on a dirt path outside. She wore a bit of a solemn expression, watching each of the kids intently.

"Hello," Joey said softly to her, their eyes meeting briefly before the woman in the painting slowly gestured for Joey to follow her, the door swinging open to reveal a dark passageway.

"Hold on," Arden said sternly as Joey slowly moved a desk towards where the painting hung, allowing her to climb up into the passageway. "where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to see where this thing leads." Joey said simply.

"By yourself?" she asked in disbelief. "What if it's a trap that leads straight to the Carrows? They're dangerous, Joey. Have some common sense here, please."

"Arden, Hogwarts wants us to fight back," Joey assured her cousin. "and if a passage reveals itself here, then I think it can only go somewhere good. So I want to see where this leads, and maybe it can help us."

"I'll go with her," Monty volunteered, walking over towards the girls and climbing up the desk after Joey, the two standing in the doorway to the passage watching the rest of the group down below.

"Well, just be safe," Arden pleaded.

"Always," Joey promised, pulling her wand from her pocket. "Lumos," she muttered, the tip of the wand lighting up and illuminating the dark passage beyond, Monty following suit as the painting door swung shut behind the pair, separating them from the rest of the group back in the Room of Requirement.

"This was very brave of you, Parks," Joey teased the boy as the corridor moved downwards, through a long flight of stairs.

"Us Ravenclaws have our moments," he shot back with a grin.

Eventually the staircase came to an end, the passage evening back out, and Joey could only guess from the chill in the air that it had led them underground. They followed the tunnel for what seemed to Joey like an eternity, the chill in the air evident from the damp rock walls surrounding them.

"It's coming to a close," Monty muttered as a doorway came up in sight in the view from their wandlight. "where do you think we've gone?"

"Can't be anywhere in the castle, I reckon," Joey mused, looking around in the near-darkness for a door handle but not quite finding one when the painting suddenly swung out in front of them, revealing a room filled with men sitting at a table, talking when the creak of the door suddenly grabbed their attention.

But not just any men.

"George," Joey blurted as she took notice of her best friend and his twin brother sitting at the table.

"Remus!" Monty exclaimed, taking sight of the man to their left.

"Fred!" Fred exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

Along with them was Bill, and another man the kids didn't quite recognize, after the double take, of course. From the first glance, the man looked just like Professor Dumbledore, leading them to briefly question what had taken place between him and Professor Snape at the end of the last school year, and seeing his body on the ground outside the Astronomy Tower. Though, after further inspection, Joey noticed slight differences were visible between the two men, but the resemblance still remained.