Dear Diggory

chapter 25

The week passed by quickly after I shared what had happened to my mother with Cedric. We didn't get a chance to talk much, but sometimes we'd catch eyes and smile at one another. It felt nice to have someone who knew the truth and it finally felt like we were proper friends.

It was Saturday and we were due for our second exploration. This time we were visiting the passageway under the whomping willow. I was curious to see what it would lead to and I made sure to pack the journal and some drinks incase we were gone a while.

I left the castle and trekked my way across the grass and slopes until I spotted everyone standing near the tree. They were stood staring at it in trepidation and I realised how unusual this would be for them. I was used to spending time around the tree, but most people had learnt to avoid it the hard way after a few unfortunate students ended up in the hospital wing.

"Hey guys! Did you bring the flashlights?" I directed my question to Jackson.

He nodded and pulled them out of his bag, handing one to each of us. Cedric smiled at me and I smiled back, our familiar greeting.

"Okay so you see the entrance there?" I pointed towards the base of the tree where there was a large hole leading into darkness. "I think we might have to crawl through it for a bit before it widens."

They nodded to show they understood and I pulled my wand out. I cast the charm on the tree with ease and watched as it relaxed into its usual slump.

"How long does it last?" Ava asked, referring to the tranquility charm.

"About two hours."

She nodded at this and I began to lead my way towards the entrance. I climbed into the hole first and discovered it was at an angle. I managed to slide down most of the way until my feet touched the flat ground and I could stand.

I stood up, brushing my hands off whilst I waited for the others. They slid down slowly, careful not to injure themselves on the jagged stone; once we were all in we turned on our torches and looked around.

We were stood in a large cave-like space and Jackson whistled, causing an echo to rebound off the rocky walls.  I pulled out the journal and began to sketch the space. I'd already drawn the outside angle of the tree from memory. I struggled to see my paper but Cedric came and shone his flashlight onto the page.

"Thank you" I smiled at him. Jackson and Ava began trying to scribble some notes about the cave and entryway, taking turns to light one another's pages.

We finished and I shone my flashlight towards the long tunnel at the other side. There appeared to be some kind of dim light source at the end and I hoped that it would lead out to something interesting.

I led us down the path, making sure to warn the others to duck their heads now and then. We were walking for about 10 minutes before we reached the end and I realised it had been deeper than I anticipated.

We entered the space and my eyes took a second to adjust to the influx of light.

Once my retinas calmed down, I saw that we were standing is a decently sized room. I guessed that it was about as tall as the four of us if we had stood on each other's shoulders.

There didn't appear to be any doors and the only entry point seemed to be where we had come from. There were, however, some very large windows that helped to keep the space bright and I wondered if they appeared differently from the outside, probably possessing protective shatter-free charms.

The contents of the room itself were strange. It was filled from ceiling to floor with all different kinds of memorabilia. Everything from giant paintings, to furniture, mirrors and clothing racks. There were smaller items too such as a miniature globe and hundreds upon hundreds of books. I walked over and span the globe gently, it rolled around and I noticed that it was ancient. It didn't feature most of the modern world map and I wondered at when exactly it had been created.

"What is this place?" Jackson asked in confusion, inspecting a telescope in the corner.

No one replied, equally confused as to what the answer could be.

I looked up at the ceiling, taking in the final detail there. A giant crest covered almost the entire area, the paint was so aged and cracked that I had to squint to see what it depicted. I managed to make out the symbol of all the houses and my eyes fell on the calligraphic font underneath.

"Historiae Nostrae" I whispered.

Our History.

I suddenly realised what room we were standing in.

"It's the archive of the founders of Hogwarts."

They all turned to stare at me as if I was speaking another language. I wasn't surprised by this, the concept wasn't something that many of the students would know about, if any. I thanked myself mentally for how much I liked reading, otherwise I might have been just as confused.

"I read an old book from the library in second year. It was hidden away at the very back of a shelf. When I found it was really dusty, I'd wondered how long it was since anyone picked it up. It was all about how Hogwarts came to be and it contained all the stories of our house founders. At the very beginning of the book it had this emblem painted in." I pointed at the ceiling and they all looked up to study it.

"One of the chapters talked about a room where the founders hid all of their memorabilia in a safe archive, but I never heard anyone mention it so I assumed it didn't exist."

"So what you're saying is... we managed to stumble on the entire Hogwarts archive by accident?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah, somehow we did" I laughed, realising how incredible our luck really was.

The others grinned then as the realisation set in.

"Madam Delphine is not going to believe this." Ava looked around the room.

Jackson clapped his hands together, preparing to organise us. "Okay Cedric and I will take the measurements and coordinates, Lila you can sketch obviously and Ava can write the description."

We split up, staying in the room for an hour as I sketched the room as fast as I was able to, knowing our tranquility time was ticking by. I knew that if I needed to I could come back easily so I didn't worry too much about memorising everything.

Once I finished the room, I quickly sketched smaller items and details that I thought to be most interesting.

The boys had finished their work swiftly and spent a lot of the time exploring the aisles, discussing what certain items were for. Ava had told them expressly not to touch anything, knowing they'd likely break something invaluable.

We managed to get back to the tree just in time and we walked back to the castle, chatting animatedly about what we'd found. Again we agreed to not tell anyone about the hidden room, and we all left to our common rooms to rest.