Alex Weasley: Book 3

12

The week had quickly gone by mostly uneventfully. Snape had made Alex go over here occlumency training and perform a patronus at least thrice at the end of their DADA lesson. It was the most exciting thing she'd done in all her lessons.

It would be Cedric's birthday the next day and Alex wasn't sure what to do. She had promised to embarrass him last year, and never let it be said that Alex didn't keep to her promises. Okay, sometimes she didn't (could Snape blame her for going out to see Kichiro alone? He should know better, really), but those were the times she had no choice. Either way, she was a little unsure.

Alex decided to pay Kichiro a visit. Maybe he'd provide some inspiration.
"I don't know, Kichi. I want to horribly embarrass him in front of everyone, but I also don't want to horribly embarrass him in front of everyone. I'm not sure." She huffed. Kichiro didn't answer, which was to be expected. "But I suppose, he never really gets embarrassed. So even if I do find a way to tease him, it's not going to work. Unless- what if I- no? That's just an amateur prank." She answered herself and sighed. "Times like this I wish you guys could talk. Although I'm kind of glad that you can't because I tell you a lot of stuff and if you could talk back, I would wanna die." She said seriously. "Anyways, back to my dilemma. There's got to be a way to embarrass him without having to interact with him in front of everyone." She frowned. "Okay, I'm going to go see if the room of requirement has any suggestions. That's its official name, you know. I read it in The book."

Alex headed straight up the the vanishing room, making sure no one else was around before walking in. There was a book sitting on a coffee table with a chair.
"I mean, I asked for suggestions to tease Cedric, not about Hogwarts's ins and outs." She said, sitting down on the comfy sofa. The book didn't disappear. "I guess I'll find my answer in here." Alex opened the book, flipping past the blurred out pages. She came across a passage on the room of requirement and skipped it, knowing what was written in it. She continued flipping past the blurred out passages and came to a chapter entitled 'Helga's Hall'. She paused. She didn't think she'd come across a hall yet. She started reading.

Long ago, when Hogwarts was first built and each founder claimed their spaces, a series of interconnected tunnels were built. They ran from Slytherin's chamber, to Helga's hall, to Gryffindor's grove, and to Rowena's study. To this date, none have ever found all four rooms. Helga Hufflepuff built a hall in which all four friends may come together. After some time, Salazar Slytherin remained the only one to visit. Rowena Ravenclaw became consumed with studying and archiving all branches of magic. Godric Gryffindor felt there was no need to any longer.

"Godric really sounds like an arse. And how is Slytherin the good one? Okay, stop it! No discriminating, Alex." She chided. "No judging on stories that have been warped through time." She turned over the page.

Helga's hall was situated directly under the infirmary, a straight tunnel away from Slytherin's chamber. In the midst of some jesting, Slytherin glamoured the tunnels so that the entrances to Helga's hall and his chamber would be totally concealed and added exits leading to random areas of the castle. Eventually, Helga gave up on convincing him to change it and decided to let it stay as it was. The new exits in the tunnels connected between the areas that would be known as Hufflepuff's basement and Slytherin's dungeons. A map is inscribed below showing the location of the tunnels that led to each founders' space.

Alex looked and saw there was indeed a map. She drunk in each detail, interested. What were the odds that the tunnels she used to get to the potions lab actually led to the secret hideaways for each of the four founders. Committing the map to memory, she jumped up and ran out of the room. She rushed down the many steps almost falling a few times on the moving staircase.
"Alex!" Hermione called, stopping her in her tracks. Alex was breathing hard as she turned to face her friend. "Where are you running to?"

"No time to explain. Would you like to come with me?" Alex held out a hand. Hermione let out a grin and took it, before yelping as Alex pulled her along.

"You could've warned me you were gonna start running again." Hermione said.

"Save your breath." Alex replied and continued pulling her down to the Hufflepuff basement. The hidden tunnel was just down the corridor and to the left from the dorms. Hermione frowned as the ran past the dorms.

"Never been to this part of the castle." Hermione commented.

"Shh!" Alex said, before leading her into her hidden tunnel.

"Woah!" Hermione looked around.

"Ignis!" Alex said, her wand out and the sconces on the walls illuminated.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked.

"Can't I surprise you?"

"No. You sometimes frighten me. I'd like to know what I'm getting into."

"At best, something to annoy Cedric with for his birthday tomorrow. At worst, we'll rediscover parts of the castle that have been forgotten for centuries."

"How is annoying Cedric better than rediscovering hidden rooms that have been lost for centuries?"

"Because either way, we'll be finding these secret areas. Annoying Cedric will be an extra bonus, which makes it better than just rediscovering areas. Here." Alex stopped pulling Hermione along. Hermione looked confused.

"A wall?"

"No, look. This wall is different. There's a badger down in the corner there." Alex pointed at the bottom.

"That's not a corner. For it to be a corner, there have to be two sides or edges meeting. It's just on the bottom of the wall."

"Technically, two edges are meeting here." Alex said. "We just can't see it." Alex lifted her wand and traced a snake on the wall. There was silence for a second before the wall creaked and moved backwards and disappeared into the ground.

A/N- I have come to realise my uploading is really more dependent on how many drafts I have. I have a set amount of drafts already written out so when I exceed it by three or more, I just kind of update more often. Anyways, hope you enjoy because I have plansssss for the founders.