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Chapter - 30 : What's Behind the Portrait?

"Finally!" said Lee, "I've been waiting for the past fifteen minutes!"

"Sorry, we went to see Harry," apologised George.

"Oh, ok. Wait! Aren't you the Slytherin girl who's almost always at the Gryffindor table?"

"Yes! I'm Ava Harlow," she held out her hand.
"I'm Lee Jordan," he complied. "Alright. I'm guessing you know what we're about to try."

"Yup!"

"Ok then," Lee continued, "let's try shall we?"

He tilted the portrait at about a 45 degree angle because of which the boy inside, fell to the floor. He huffed angrily and moved to another portrait across the wall.

Behind the portrait, they saw a small handle. Lee pulled it and instantly, just beside the portrait, there opened a small cabinet. It definitely had appeared because of pulling the lever but it didn't seem big enough for anyone to travel through.

"Damn it!" Fred exclaimed.
"We've found about 20 such cabinets behind portraits, but never a new passage! I guess the Marauders got to everything before we did," Lee explained sadly.

"The Marauders?" Ava was curious.
"Oh yes. See this map. We nicked it from Filtch's office two years ago. It shows everyone at Hogwarts - real time. Where exactly they are. That's how we've been able to know when Filtch is coming." George said.

"Oh! That is so cool!" Ava said, "I didn't know Filtch had an office!" Ava burst out laughing.

The three joined in.

"He usually uses that to give students punishment slips. It's really quite just a joke." Lee told her.

"But well, I'm going to go and drown my sorrow with some pudding. Good night!" Lee said as he left for the Great Hall.

"What about you guys? Have you even had dinner?" Ava asked them.

"Nah! We don't need to stick to the normal food times, we just simply go to the kitchen whenever we like. The elves are dead helpful." Fred answered.

"Lucky! Can we go right now? Please?"

"Haha, not now. Enough visits for one day for you. Let's get you back to the Great Hall so that you can get to bed. It's a school night remember?" George replied with a hint of sadness in his voice.
Why did it have to be a school night?!!? Why can't it always be the weekend?!?

Ava laughed at George's thought. They quickly moved down the stairs.

And with that she bid the Weasley twins a good night and headed for her dormitory.
As she entered, she found it completely empty - the girls were still at dinner.

Ava heard a vigorous rapping on the window of her dorm. A beautiful brown owl waited for her to let it in.

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OMGGGGGGGGG! I'M FIGURATIVELY DYING RIGHT NOW! We hit 500 reads! I'm so happy! Thank you!!!!! I cannot believe this!

Thanks for reading my book so far! I hope you're enjoying it!

Lots of love.

Always,
Ana