Disclaimer: All aspects of the Harry Potter universe belong to JK Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment. I shamelessly twist, bend, and snap this universe to suit my own needs.
Summary: Harry recognized the need for the DA in his first year rather than his fifth. With a group of powerful friends, unexpected allies, and the planning to overcome age old enemies and meddling Headmasters as well, can these students traverse the dangerous halls of Hogwarts and the world outside of them? Can they defeat the Dark Lord and his followers while fighting for communal reform?

The hallowed halls of Hogwarts played host only to the sounds of whistling wind on this late December night. Torches cast lively shadows on the walls and portraits slept soundly in their frames. There was no one in sight.

That did not, however, mean that no one was there.

A young man was creeping through the halls under the weak cover of a disillusionment charm. On occasion, it would flicker and betray his location to his silent watcher. She had been on his tail since he had left the common room and hadn't missed a beat as she followed his convoluted path. As much as he kept casting furtive glances over his shoulder, blue eyes shining with paranoia, he had no hope of seeing through the Weasley twins' stealth bomb she was currently sporting.

'Of course,' she grimaced as Malfoy whipped around a corner after putting on a burst of speed. 'That means I can't match his speed.' Moving much faster would disrupt the intricate magic of the device.

"He's taken the passageway behind Big Mouthed Bertrand," Blaise Zabini's voice sounded in her ear as she did her best to catch up.

"Dammit," she cursed near silently.

She could already hear the occupant of the portrait starting up as he swung shut. She wouldn't be able to use the same route to follow her quarry with the way that portrait was known to act. Still, Draco Malfoy didn't have a hope of evading Flora even without her handy copy of the Marauder's Map or the voice in her ear.

"Why, you ruffian, to wake me at this hour!" the robust form of Big Mouth Bertrand, cheeks all ruddy with an unimpressive beard and mustache, was complaining. "You ought have at least spared a 'how do you do?' before making yourself welcome. The disrespect…"

He had heaved himself up out of his great chair (which creaked under the strain for effect) and continued gesticulating wildly.

"He'll wake the whole corridor at this rate," Flora growled.

"Not even Cordeleode Catrain was such a heathen, I say," Bertrand continued before he fell back into his chair that nearly buckled under the weight. "And he cheats on our dice games! That's not all he cheated on either. Why, I should tell you about the night of our tourney — Cordeleode arrived twenty-five minutes late with Ausgustana Susierre on his arm. Let me tell you, that bedswerver was not invited!"

"Take the hidden stairs behind the false column between the third and fourth door on your right — you can catch up," Blaise said over the noise the portrait was raising.

She didn't hesitate to listen to the suggestion of her squad captain, pressing her back to the false wall and laying her palms flat against it. She wiggled her fingers, tickling two particular stones, and the wall shuddered behind her before a gap opened up and swallowed her whole. In the commotion raised by Big Mouthed Bertrand, none of the other portraits noticed the brief fluctuation of the wall.

On the other side of the wall in the complete darkness of the hidden passageway, Flora deactivated the stealth bomb and lit her wand. She climbed the narrow stairs at a run until she came to the top of them where she reactivated her stealth device. Checking her map, she saw that Draco was behind her now by one corridor. She exited the secret stairs quickly then remained against the wall (that had once been her secret exit door) while watching the map for her quarry. He was passing her within a few moments and she was following him once more, closer this time.

"Nicely done," Blaise complimented from his place in the Slytherin dorms.

She allowed a brief smile to touch her lips but did not answer her captain, remaining close to the disillusioned form of Draco Malfoy. While she did have a magical map, she preferred to use her own two eyes in exercises like this and tracking a mostly invisible target was simply not the easier thing to do.

"Then again," Flora noted to herself as the blonde teen stumbled and scuffed his shoe along the ground loudly. If there had been a teacher nearby, they'd have had him right there. "He isn't the most skilled and stealthy of targets anyways,"

The two continued their hike through the halls of Hogwarts for a few minutes more, only once having to deviate from their path to avoid Mrs. Norris. Flora, of course, was undetectable to the cat as long as they didn't touch but Draco apparently stunk to high hell based on the yowling the angrily feline aimed his way.

"He's not always this bad at this," Flora muttered to Blaise.

"Stress. This is probably the last time he'll visit before Christmas break,"

"Is he staying?" she asked as she followed him up another set of stairs and hurried slightly so they didn't move before she could get onto them.

"No," Blaise denied. "If he is, he has yet to write his name down on the sign-up sheet."

"Hm,"

Conversation halted there as they neared the corridor the Room of Requirement was supposed to be in. The stretch of wall was at the end of a three-way intersection of corridors that (unless invisible) provided no great places to hide. Normally, Flora would hang back but she stuck as close as she dared this time.

Withdrawing her wand, she cast an intricate spell over her eyes. As soon as she did, she could feel the headache building as the magic made her eyes a hundred times more sensitive to everything. It served its purpose though — she could clearly see the solid form of Draco Malfoy as he moved towards a blank stretch of wall between two inset pillars. It looked no more magical than all of the other walls of Hogwarts.

Then, he paced. Once, twice, three times. Flora wondered for a brief moment what he was doing but in a few moments her question was answered by a veritable explosion of magic in her eyesight. A door seemed to be forming in front of him but she couldn't see anything any longer as her vision whited out.

The spell that made her eyes magically sensitive enough to see through a disillusionment spell had worked too well. The visual centers of her brain were just not prepared for the input from the amount of magic that comes from Hogwarts creating an entire room in seconds.

The strength of her throbbing headache reached a crescendo before her vision blacked out and she fell to the ground, still ensconced within her privacy bubble, and passed out.

All Blaise her over the comms was a pained "oh" and the sound of her hitting the cold flagstones.

"Oh bloody-" Blaise cursed when Flora didn't respond to his calls. After a few seconds of rapid thought, he took a moment to see to strengthening and re-sealing the wards over his four poster bed. Then, he focused back on his comm unit and said aloud:"Potter,"

There was no answer.

"Potter!" he yelled louder.

"Wuh?" the sleepy voice of their fearless leader came. "Wuh's happening?"

"Something happened; Flora seems to be unconscious in the Room of Requirements corridor,"

"What?" Harry asked, instantly alert. "Did Malfoy-"

"No, I don't know what happened but she's alone in the corridor for now,"

"Meet me in the Cathedral,"

"Okay," Blaise agreed.

He debated summoning his clothes from outside of his bed but decided against it. With a wiggle and a wave of his wand, the shrunken trunk attached to his amulet began to glow to match his wand before he finished off the spell. In seconds, he was fully dressed in the DA armor. It wasn't long after that that he triggered his portkey and disappeared from the Slytherin dorms.

"Graham is on his way," Harry said from where he waited by one of the false-walls that let out closer to the seventh floor corridor. "Still watching her on the map?"

"Hasn't left my sight," he confirmed as he double checked — the prone form of Flora Carrow had not moved an inch.

"Then let's go get her. Disillusionment spells?" Harry asked, knowing that the Weasley's stealth bomb would require them to move much too slowly. His invisibility cloak had its own drawbacks as well (namely being too short to cover him or anyone else adequately on the move).

Blaise nodded jerkily before applying the aforementioned spell.

"Just follow me," Harry told him. "And keep an eye on the map."

The unlikely duo, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, pushed open the false wall and came out into an empty corridor. From there, they moved as quickly and as they could through the winding corridors. To Blaise's surprise, Harry cut into multiple secret passageways (two that weren't even on the map, which Blaise made a note to have added later). Because of this, they made good time.

"You okay?" Harry asked quietly as they waited behind a tapestry alcove for Professor Sinistra to pass by.

"Fine," the Slytherin answered as he checked his heavy silver watch, enchanted hands ticking away. The fine piece of jewelry had been a gift from Daphne for his birthday.

Harry raised a brow at the non-answer which had Blaise letting off a half-hearted shrug.

"Worrying about Flora?" Harry guessed in one.

"Yeah," he agreed past the knot in his throat. If anything had happened to her on an assignment he'd given her…

"Feeling the guilt of responsibility?"

"Something like that,"

"Flora is going to be okay," Harry assured him. "These things, whatever it was, happen and all we can do is try not to blame ourselves when they do. Let's go,"

A few minutes later, Blaise and Harry arrived in the seventh floor corridor. They both double-checked the map then Harry began walking towards where they knew her to be.

Even if she was under the cover of a stealth device, Harry had an easy time finding her. Once you knew exactly how to spot one of the Weasley twins' stealth bombs, they were easier to find than a candle in the nighttime.

"Got her," the Gryffindor said as he knelt down.

Blaise nodded but didn't turn to look, busy watching their backs and holding his wand aloft. Harry quickly began searching for the circular tablet-like device that Flora had somewhere on her person. He tried to be as proper as possible while reaching blindly towards the young woman's body and after a few awkward moments, he felt the rune-inscribed marble under his fingers and found the deactivation switch.

The stealth ward fell and the invisible girl was suddenly before their eyes. To Harry's concern, there was blood running from her nose, some fresh and some drying all down her cheek and neck. It looked very dramatic and he checked for any further damage but found none obvious to him or his standard spells.

"No signs of dark magic, no signs of external trauma. She should be fine to portkey," Harry reported brusquely.

He slid his arms underneath her knees and shoulders then lifted her up into the bridal style position with ease. He trained so much for defense and for Quidditch that he really was quite fit. It also helped that Flora was a thin, slip of a girl.

"Ready?"

"Ready," Blaise agreed.

Harry activated his portkey first and was whisked away from the shadowy hallway. A split second later (after assuring that the injured girl and his leader had both made it away), Blaise activated his own and was swept away to join them.

"-get her in a bed," Blaise heard Graham tell Harry as the healer walked alongside the unconscious girl and their leader. The healer looked sleep-mussed but alert in his DA robes.

Blaise joined them rapidly and came to stand silently at Harry's side as Graham ran diagnostic after diagnostic. The dirty-blonde healer had a furrowed brow, all traces of fatigue erased from his face. He was muttering under his breath as he tapped his wand to a piece of parchment and studied the spell readout.

"It looks like she used an ocular enhancement that got overpowered to a high degree,"

"Think she used it to watch Malfoy and the room?" Harry asked immediately, frowning. "A room like that would be blinding under any sort of mage sight."

"Her brain couldn't handle it," Graham agreed. "The nosebleed was probably the worst of it though. Aside from some bruising from the fall she took passing out, there's no other real damage and certainly none permanent."

"So she'll be okay?"

"She will. I'm going to give her a half-dose of Baruffio's and an oculus potion then a full dose of a headache and sleeping potion."

"She'll need to stay here overnight?" Harry asked, knowing that Baruffio's Brain Elixir took some time to run its course.

"No," Graham said with a head shake. "If she weren't a Slytherin, I'd say it'd be easier to let her sleep it off here. As it is, it's up to you two to get her back to the dorms."

"Thanks, Graham," Harry said with a nod towards the seventh year Hufflepuff healer.

He nodded then went to gather all of the potions that he needed from the cabinets. Blaise and Harry began discussing the plan for returning the prone Slytherin to her dorm whilst he treated her. When he was done, he handed two potions to the dark-skinned Slytherin sixth year.

"Wiggenweld potion to wake her up tomorrow," he explained as he handed over the dark green vial. "And a headache brew if she wakes up with a banger,"

"Thank you," Blaise said sincerely.

"She's ready to go," Graham said before he clapped Harry on the shoulder and began to take his leave. "I'm gonna head back to bed myself. Night, boys,"

"Night," the Gryffindor called back before joining Blaise at Flora's bedside.

She had regained some color and her ash brown hair was no longer plastered to her face. The dried blood from her nose bleed was gone too, no stain upon her robes.

"You carrying her or am I?" Harry asked.

"We are wizards, you know," Blaise told Harry with a raised brow. "We could levitate her,"

"I don't have fine enough control with that particular spell to hide her in secret passages at a split seconds notice if need be,"

"That fair," Blaise admitted; some of those spaces were tight and would be difficult to maneuver a unconscious girl who's as stiff as a board (an effect of the spell). "You carry her then,"

Harry picked her up with about as much ease as he had before then headed towards the Cathedral exit that would take them closest to the Slytherin dorms. "Let's go then,"

"Can you activate your own device?" Blaise asked as he nodded towards Harry's lack of free hand.

"Yeah, I've got it," he confirmed as he awkwardly clicked it on and disappeared from sight. Blaise did the same then opened the exit, allowing the three of them to climb out of the portrait hole slowly.

The pace was dragging and Harry's arms began to tire before the reached the ground floor. He considered levitating her for a moment until Blaise signaled and they pulled closer to the walls of the shadowy corridor.

Snape himself rounded the corner from behind them, robes billowing, and strode briskly past them and towards the Entry Hall and the stairs to the greater dungeons. Harry managed to stifle his dislike internally as he scowled at the greasy professor. The man did not, of course, notice it and simply continued on his path with his bat-like cloak.

Once they were clear, they began their trek carefully through the main hall and down into the dungeons. Snape had moved away from them quickly and no other professors really patrolled down there.

"Blaise," Harry said through his comms, speaking in a low voice even though no one should be able to hear through the silencing ward. "Have you woken Hestia yet?"

"Not yet," he answered shortly. "I will now,"

The Slytherin said her name then called it a little more loudly to wake the girl who hopefully slept with her ear piece in like most of the DA. It came with a handy feature to silence all general chatter except direct calls when one needed to sleep and it was waterproof so most people didn't remove them all too often.

"Zabini?" the cooly alert voice of Hestia came after a brief, bleary moan. "What's happened?"

"Accident; Flora's mage sight charm got overloaded," he answered. "She's fine, we're almost back to the dorms. Come down to the common room and make sure it's empty."

She didn't protest or say anything. It took a couple of minutes, by which time Blaise and co. were almost right outside of the Slytherin dorms.

Blaise heard Hestia cast a couple of detection charms before she spoke again. "It's clear,"

"Let's go," Blaise said to Harry. "Banesberry,"

The door to the Slytherin common room appeared when the sixth year prefect spoke the poisonous password. He stepped in first and was followed quickly by Harry with Flora.

Blaise dropped his stealth charm quickly enough once he found the common room mostly empty and was immediately made victim of Hestia's most keen and cold stare. It was a sort of dead-eyed, vulture-like stare that he was fairly positive she picked up from her infamous aunt and uncle.

"Where is my sister?"

Harry managed to cancel his stealth ward just then, revealing the unconscious twin sister to the worried fifth year Slytherin in front of them.

"Harry? Wh- Flora!" she cried out softly as she ran up to Harry, whom was holding her sister bridal-style once more. "Is she okay?"

"Graham treated her, she'll be fine in the morning," Harry answered. "Her brain couldn't handle the input from the spell so she passed out and had a bit of a nosebleed. She's on Baruffio's Brain Elixir, an oculus potion, and some headache and sleeping draughts."

"Right now, she needs to be in the dorms. Are you room-mates asleep?"

"I made sure of it," Hestia said with a cold smirk and a twirl of the dark-wooded wand that Harry realized had been in her hand the entire time. "I'll take her up. Get out of here, Potter,"

"Don't have to tell me twice," he said as he held out his arms (and the unconscious girl) towards Hestia. She waved her wand and cast the spell over her sister to mobilize her. "Don't forget the potions, Blaise," Harry reminded.

Blaise nodded and began to softly explain the two potions to Hestia following her curious look. Harry, tired as he was, gave them a wave and a nod then activated his portkey to the Cathedral.

It was a very short walk from the tower using the very first entrance to the Cathedral they'd ever found. He fell back into bed with an exhausted sigh and fell back into the deep sleep he'd been in before the mini-catastrophe.

It was the next day during his first class that Harry read the discussion in the section of the DA journal dedicated to Malfoy Monitoring. Typically, the castle security team wrote most of the posts but everyone was taking a particular interest in figuring out exactly what in the hell the blonde was up to.

"He just paced back and forth a few times and the door appeared," Flora had written in the instant-chat section in addition to the full report she'd written up in History of Magic. "Then, of course, I got blinded…"

She'd endured many a ribbing (amongst even more well-wishes) when she awoke that morning. News in the DA spread near instantaneously thanks to the journals and almost everyone checked theirs frequently. Flora would most certainly not be using that charm again anytime soon or without proper forethought and reasoning.

"Could be a pattern on the floor," Collin theorized. "Or a specific tile."

"It's a room that gives you what you require, right?" Kevin Entwhistle clarified. "Maybe you have to focus on what you require,"

"I'll check it out tonight," Harry decided. "There won't be time tomorrow before the leaving feast and the train to London."

"I'll go as well," Blaise insisted.

"Alright," he agreed. "Hermione, have you found anything else in the Gryffindor books about the Heart of Hogwarts?"

"Not yet but I'm still searching,"

"Keep us in the loop,"

"Of course,"

After that, Professor McGonagall asked that they clear their desks for a quick practical on a spell for next years syllabus — it may be the last class-day of term, but she would stand for no nonsense!

Harry and Blaise met in the Cathedral later that night. They both wore outfits similar to the ones they had worn on the centaur hunt; black trousers and matching long-sleeved shirts. Harry had also pulled out a black beanie for the occasion which was pulled down above his brow. Once they had both activated the relevant stealth devices, they began making their way to the seventh floor corridor.

"Hestia on snake watch tonight?" Harry asked curiously as they pulled into a hidden alcove to avoid Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," Blaise confirmed. "He's not moved an inch from his dorms,"

"Then let's see what this mystery room is all about," Harry said with a gleam in his emerald eyes as they climbed the final set of stairs and neared their destination.

Despite his connection to the school, he didn't feel much of anything when they approached the stretch of wall in question. He could feel something whenever he walked by most secret doors or portraits with rooms behind them; here, he felt nothing outside of the normal spectrum of Hogwarts' magic.

"Detection charms?"

"Mhm," Harry said in a low tone with a sharp nod that Blaise didn't see.

The two team mates began scouring the area around them with detection charms of all sorts. Though it had been done before and not yielded any results, they still did a basic preliminary inspection. They looked for any evidence of hidden rooms, pulled at every loose stone, ran their fingers over every crack, and still felt nothing.

"Flora said she saw him pace back and forth, right?" Harry asked.

"I'll try,"

Harry stepped back and began to observe Blaise. It was difficult, not being able to perfectly see his team mate, but he could detect the stealth magic the dark skinned boy was using and extrapolated his position and movements from there. He saw Blaise pace back and forth a few times but nothing happened.

"Nothing," he said in a frustrated tone.

"Let me try," Harry decided thoughtfully. The two traded places and Harry began to pace after a long moment of staring at the wall. "Maybe it's like Kevin said — think about what you want,"

"I want to know what Draco Malfoy was doing in here," he thought as he began pacing. He focused on the thought, repeating it in his mind a few times for good measure. He watched the wall out of the corner of his eyes to see if it reacted. It did not.

"Drat," Harry cursed mildly as he began pacing more quickly.

Blaise watched with a furrowed brow as Harry tried to figure out the secret of the mysterious room.

"I just need a room," he groaned in his head. "A secret room in the castle. That's what I need."

Frustrated as he was by the lack of response from the wall, he almost didn't notice he'd succeeded. Blaise's small intake of breath had alerted him to the change. A small, round-top door had appeared right in front of Harry quite quickly indeed.

"Doesn't look as big as the doors Flora saw,"

"One way to find out…"

Harry pushed open the door with no struggle and revealed inside…

"What?" Harry groaned

"It's- it's-" Blaise stuttered before shaking his head. "A broom cupboard? Why in Salazar's name would you ask for that?"

"Do you see any brooms?" Harry asked with some snark as he glared at the small, empty, windowless room. "It's just a room."

"What did you do?"

"I don't know," he gave a shrug to the Slytherin's question. "I was thinking,"

"What, exactly, were you thinking?"

"Well first I thought about wanting to know what Malfoy was doing,"

"Then?"

"I got frustrated and thought about how all I needed was a room, a secret one. Since obviously Malfoy is doing something secretive,"

Blaise looked at the small room thoughtfully then shut the door. To their surprise, it disappeared.

"I don't think that's the secret room Draco was using," he mused. "But I think the castle did give you what you asked for. Try again."

"Erm…" Harry paced back and forth for a second before a large double door appeared. This one sounded closer to Flora's descriptions than the others.

Blaise blinked at it for a second before pushing one side of the door open. It swung in more easily than he would have thought and revealed a pretty spot-on replica of the Yule Ball in the Great Hall during their fourth year complete with snow, ice sculptures.

"Dare I ask?"

"I wanted to check the size capabilities," Harry answered as he looked around in surprise. "I didn't expect this much detail…"

The edged out of the large ballroom and shut the door. Again, it disappeared.

"You think it would have disappeared with one of us still inside?" Blaise asked. "I mean, it does when Draco goes in but I assume the room is still present if he is inside…"

They shared a look for a moment before Harry shrugged. "Dunno, let's find out."

The pacing process was repeated and when Harry opened the door, he found a miniature replica of the Gryffindor common room. He stepped in and then closed the door between himself and Blaise.

"Door's still there," Blaise said after a few long moments before opening it to make his point.

"Then how does Malfoy do it?"

"Maybe you need to ask for a private room? If it can create a whole ballroom apparently from your memory, maybe it can restrict access."

They tried again while adding a specifier that only Harry should be allowed in. This time, when he entered the room the door disappeared behind him. As much as Blaise paced in front of the wall, he could not get in.

"Try asking for a different room," Harry said suddenly from his place on the very comfy armchair in front of a roaring fire inside the room. "See if two people can use it separately at the same time,"

"Got it," Blaise agreed. His answer came a few moments later. "No luck,"

"Interesting," Harry said as he got up and exited the room. The door disappeared behind him. "We need to test the capabilities of this room but we need more than two people to do it. I want at least three people to find out if it can block and allow certain people and what happens if they try to access it at the same time…" he mused aloud.

"We still didn't figure out what Malfoy was doing though," Blaise pointed out.

"I think that the room is kinda like an interrogation. Useless you have the right questions, you aren't going to get anywhere. It won't create a room for us when we ask for the one he was using so we're going to need to be more specific."

Blaise thought on that for a moment before agreeing. "I think you may be right — I'll brainstorm with the team and see what we can do. Although…we may not know what he was doing, but we know for sure that he never exited out the same way he came in. I'd like to test that capability,"

Harry watched as Blaise paced back and forth until an odd door appeared in front of him. It was perfectly circular and had a horizontal handle that they had to pull up on to open. The hatch stayed in place once they'd raised it and revealed the dark, scary looking tunnel to somewhere below.

"What did you ask for?"

"A way back to the Slytherin dorms…"

"You don't think that goes directly there, do you?" Harry asked with wide eyes as he looked at the room with some surprise.

"It's delivered on everything else?"

"Well," Harry reached out blindly and poked Blaise. "Go on,"

"What?"

"Try it,"

"No way in hell!"

"You asked for it," Harry pointed out.

"I am not jumping down an unknown, unlit tunnel!"

"Live a little, Zabini,"

"I am not a Gryffindor, Potter," he drawled with no real bite (they tended to switch between first names and surnames depending on their mood or the situation). "I do not go rushing headlong, literally, into the unknown whilst hoping for the best."

"I trust the castle," Harry said, shaking his head. "Go on. Once you're gone, I'll go straight back to my dorms from here. It'll be cake,"

"I do not see how this will be at all related to confections,"

Harry rolled his eyes though his year mate didn't have the pleasure of seeing it. "It's a muggle saying that means it'll be really easy."

"You have no way of knowing that," Blaise pointed out. "We didn't even think about asking for a secret passage until a minute ago! Who knows if it works?"

"Never did Draco any harm,"

"Draco doesn't exit the room each time. He enters the room and hours later reappears elsewhere,"

"Hm," Harry mused. "Judging by the way the room seems to function, he'd have to ask for a secret exit when he…'thinks up' the room. So you're right, this is different. But, I will argue that it's the same room and that its secret passage creating functions probably work the same way,"

"Ugh," the normally composed pureblood heir rolled his eyes. "Why am I stuck with you?"

"Because you let a pretty girl con you into joining the club," Harry deadpanned. "You picked her, got stuck with me."
Blaise's jaw clenched slightly and then he just shook his head. "For Daphne," Harry heard him mutter.

"That's right," he agreed cheerily. "Now, grab your wand and your manhood then jump on down that tunnel. For Daphne,"

"Bloody Gryffindor," Blaise muttered before begrudgingly acquiescing. Despite the fact that he wasn't jumping with joy over it, he realized that it was important to find out the functions of this room and that it wouldn't be the best idea to have Harry test it just in case it did lead directly to the Slytherin dorm rooms. Unfortunately (for him), he (unlike Harry) didn't think about closing the door and having Harry ask for a passage to the Gryffindor commons then testing it that way.

So, away Blaise Zabini went down a very long, very steep, very dark slide all the way into the deepest depths of the castle.

"So..." Harry prodded over the comms a full minute and thirteen seconds later (he'd timed it with a light giggle as Blaise shoved off down the tunnel). The Slytherin had appeared smack dab in the middle of the Slytherin dorms on the map so Harry knew he had completed his journey.

"You and I are not friends,"

"Don't say things you don't mean," Harry chastised in good humor before turning his tone more serious (with equal parts curiousness). "Where did it let you out?"

"In the corridor leading to the boys dormitories," he answered in a low, terse voice. "Right in front of the bathroom I use to drop the stealth devices and change clothes before bed."

"So pretty much exactly where you wanted?"

"Pretty much,"

"Was there a painting there or anything?"

"It's typically just a sort of decorative arch carving like all the other walls in this corridor,"

"Interesting," Harry mused. "Well. Suppose this is goodnight then,"

"Couldn't have come a moment sooner," Blaise said as he grumbled something about reckless Gryffindors and trips worse than a Gringotts cart. Right before he signed off, the Slytherin spoke up. "I took the plunge, Potter, you're taking the paperwork. You hear me?"

"Aye aye, boss," he said, borrowing a phrase Nymphadora Tonks liked to use during meetings whenever Amelia Bones or Harry spoke.

Blaise grumbled something that sounded vaguely Snape like before muttering a civil goodnight.

"Ta," Harry laughed before cutting off the private comm link he'd initiated with Blaise.

Inwardly, he made a personal note to make sure Blaise got to experience a muggle rollercoaster somehow (he didn't quite remember if Blaise had been in on the Disney trip). After all, he seemed to enjoy the eight-plus story slide to the Dungeons. Harry chuckled to himself again.

Harry closed the hatch to Blaise's secret passageway and waited for it to disappear before he started to pace again. A plain door appeared and when he opened it, he found stairs going up.

"Aw, come on," Harry groaned as he looked around at the castle at large (he knew the old girl was sentient and she would hear him regardless of any stealth ward). "Stairs? He got a slide."

He may have imagined it but Harry was pretty sure the flight of stairs got a bit longer at his question. He swallowed any further complaints and began his trek towards his dorms. He supposed that was his punishment for enjoying ribbing Blaise so much. That wasn't to say it was malicious, of course — it was all good natured.

Harry's stairs ended at another door that ended up being on the other side of another portrait just offside of the Fat Lady. He decided not to think about the fact that it may have been quicker for him to just portkey to the Cathedral then walk from there and accept that the castle also liked to play tricks on him. He should have known that by now simply by the amount of random trick stairs and disappearing doors all around Hogwarts.

It wasn't until he was about to go up to his dorm that he stopped and groaned. He still had paperwork to do as he'd agreed with Blaise to write up the report in the journals.

"Oh," he groaned. "I am so sleeping on the train tomorrow."

(A/N:) I know that this was a very short chapter but it's July 31, 2017 today and I felt the need to celebrate the birthday of Harry Potter! I know it's a bit silly but I think it's fun and a good way to celebrate the wonderful works of J.K. Rowling. The next chapter will kick off the beginning of Winter Break.

Thank you all so very much for your continued readership and support. It has certainly fueled my continued efforts and creativity with this story. As ever, please feel free to leave thoughts, questions, and comments in the review section or PM me directly!