So I'm just lazy and I procrastinate way more than I should. Sorry. Here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing but the plot.

The teachers were puzzled by Harry's sudden change in demeanor. They had expected a sullen child still grieving about the death of Cedric Diggory. Dumbledore had informed them in a meeting that Harry had been so distraught by the events at the end of the previous school year that he had run away. Professor Flitwick sighed as Dumbledore once again emphasized the importance of keeping a close eye on Harry Potter.

"He is unstable and willing to allow his friends to be in danger. He could have easily been killed over the summer without the protection of the Order." Flitwick heard every other teacher groan quietly. They had all heard this many times since school had started and it had only been two weeks. None of the teachers saw any emotional problem with Harry. Their only worry was that he didn't seem to be eating the food the house elves prepared for the meals. They noticed the desserts, it was hard to miss, but they were not very worried about Harry's new diet. As for his behavior in class and in the hallways, it was hard to find anything wrong with it. If anything it seemed as though he had matured over the summer. He avoided conflict and always did his work. Every teacher, except for Snape, had praised Harry's work ethic whenever Dumbledore brought it up.

"It's like he's a whole other person."

"He successfully casts the new spells on his first try."

"Really Dumbledore, I don't see how this is a depressed child." Dumbledore's face got darker as he heard each teacher's remark about Harry, especially the one about being a "whole other person." Dumbledore knew that something was erased from his memory about Harry and it pained him to think that Harry had been able to overpower him so easily. He was going to figure out what he had been forced to forget even if he had to torture Harry to remember what he had lost.

Meanwhile, in L's trunk, L and Hermione were both on their laptops each doing their respective research.

"L," Hermione began, "we've both discussed the possibility of Voldemort hiding a Horcrux in Hogwarts yet I can't think of anywhere that would be ingenious of Voldemort to hide it." L looked up from his current case and gazed at the ceiling of the room in his trunk thoughtfully.

"Voldemort has a flair for the dramatics. There is no way he would believe in the concept of leaving something in plain sight. There must be a room somewhere in this castle that he found to hide it." Hermione sighed as she tapped at her keyboard.

"We've already searched throughout this castle and looked at all the secret passages on the Marauders Map. There must be a place that your father and his friends did not manage to find." Hermione gazed at her screen then scowled. "I just had a thought but I really hate taking advantage of them in any way." L looked up in amusement.

"So you are planning on asking the house elves?" He said with a small smirk. Hermione groaned.

"More specifically Dobby but yes, I am going to ask a house elf." L shook his head.

"You should know that their magic feeds off of the magic of their masters. They would die if they were not bound to a witch or wizard." Hermione's face looked sullen.

"I wish there were a way to make them all free without them dying." She sighed and then said loudly, "Dobby!" A faint crack was heard a Dobby appeared.

"Yes miss Grangy?" Hermione smiled.

"Thank you for coming Dobby." Dobby smiled widely.

"Anything for you and Harry Potter L, miss Grangy." Hermione seemed puzzled.

"Harry Potter L?" L looked up.

"Oh yes, I bound Dobby to me at the end of our second year. He's been working for me ever since and seeing as he is connected to my magic he knows of both my identities."

"And you never thought to mention this to me?" L shrugged.

"It never came up." Hermione rolled her eyes and turned back to Dobby.

"Dobby, would you please look at this map and tell me if there are any secret rooms or passages that have not been included?"

"Yes miss Grangy," Dobby replied and Hermione handed him the map. Dobby stared at the map intensely for a few seconds before handing the map back to Hermione and nodding his head. "There is one room that is not on this map miss Grangy." Hermione smiled.

"Could you please tell us what this room is and where it is Dobby?" Dobby nodded, his ears flapping wildly.

"It is a room that a person can only enter when they have a real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, miss, when Winky had been very drunk; he had hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, miss…and Dobby knows Mr. Filch had found extra cleaning materials there when he had run short, miss, and-"

"Yes Dobby," Hermione said smiling. "Could you please tell us where this wonderful room is?" Her eyes were alight with excitement. Even L looked at Dobby with some interest. He had not heard of this room before. John had never found it.

"Master and miss Grangy can find the room on the seventh floor in the left corridor. It is across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls how to dance. To enter the room, you's must walk three times back and forth in front of the wall and think about what you wish to find."

"Thank you Dobby," L said thoughtfully. "You may get back to your chores now." Dobby smiled and left. L turned to Hermione. "We will go find this room tomorrow night. It is late and you should sleep. There is a bed in the far side of this room. Quillish made sure there was one so that I would have somewhere to sleep if I desired." Hermione yawned and nodded.

"See you in the morning L." L nodded in reply.

The next evening L and Hermione stayed in the common room until everyone had gone up to bed. L cast a dillusionment charm on himself and Hermione and they set out to find the Room of Requirement. The directions Dobby gave them were easy to follow and it wasn't long before they stood in front of the large tapestry. During their journey to the room, L had considered what Voldemort was thinking when he placed the Horcrux in the room. It couldn't have been something too complicated, as the Horcrux did not appear to have been made during Voldemort's school years. The only one created when Voldemort was at school was the diary. Voldemort could not have come to Hogwarts with malicious intent either as the wards would not have let him in. Hermione had done her research well; she found that Tom Riddle had come to Hogwarts a couple years after he graduated to apply as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He must have hidden it then so that meant that his thought as he paced in front of this wall was rash and unplanned. He must have been very focused on hiding something quickly.

"Hermione," L said, "pace in front of the tapestry three times and think of a room to hide things." Hermione nodded and paced up and down with her eyes shut tightly as she thought about the room L asked to think of. A door appeared and Hermione opened it excitedly. L watched as her face fell as she scanned the room.

"What is it?" He asked.

"It's like a junkyard in here. We'll never find it." Hermione said quietly, feeling subdued. L just walked forward into the room and closed his eyes, letting his magic fill every corner of the room. He sensed a very dark magic radiating from on top of one of the piles of junk.

"It's over there," he said pointing to one of the many piles. Hermione walked over and looked at the large pile.

"It's huge we'll never find it in there." L shook his head.

"No, the horcrux is on top of the pile. Look," he said pointing, "there's a crown." Hermione looked and sure enough at the top of the pile there was a crown decorated with blue jewels.

"The legendary diadem of Ravenclaw," she whispered. "It's such a shame that we have to destroy it. It's such a pretty artifact." L nodded and then closed his eyes again. He tried to sense if there were any traps but he could not find any.

"Hermione, the diadem is not guarded. It appears Voldemort was arrogant enough to think he was the only one in the Hogwarts to know of this room." Hermione shook her head and laughed at Voldemort's arrogance.

L walked towards the pile and began climbing up the pile of hidden things. As he reached the top he hesitated before touching the horcrux. Who knows what it might do to his strange sense. He decided it was best not to risk it so he conjured a pair of gloves and put them on before picking up the diadem. The diadem held a lot of dark magic and it hurt L to touch it, even though the glove didn't allow actual physical contact. Since L couldn't stand to touch the diadem, he threw it to the bottom of the pile and climbed down as fast as he could.

"How are we going to destroy it?" Hermione asked. L shrugged.

"Fiendfire is one way to destroy it but it is such an unreliable spell because it is so hard to control. Our best bet would be to destroy it using basilisk venom like I did with Riddle's diary.

"But how are we going to get the venom?" Hermione wondered. L looked at her.

"We'll have to go down to the Chamber of Secrets another night and collect some of the venom from the corpse. For now I'll just hide the horcrux in my trunk." Hermione nodded then yawned.

"Okay, we should get back to bed." They exited the room and crept down the hallway. Hermione was just about to turn a corner when L's arm shot out and stopped her.

"Wait," he whispered. "Don't move, don't make a sound." They fell silent and Hermione was able to pick up faint noises from the end of the hallway they had been about to go down. Voiced picked up.

"Surely Severus you can do something about the memories Harry erased from my mind." Hermione recognized the voice as Dumbledore's and glanced over at L with a panicked expression.

"What are we going to do?" She mouthed. L narrowed his eyes for a moment then tapped Hermione's head with is hand and she shivered as it felt like an egg had just been broken over her head. L closed his eyes for a moment and Hermione watched as he flickered out of sight. The voices came closer and the two teens stayed as still as they could.

"Albus I've told you many times, the memory charm is too strong for me to remove. I can't fathom how Potter was able to even perform such a charm in the first place. He much have cheated somehow, his magic is mediocre at best. I will continue looking for a potion that might weaken the spell but for now, Albus, I'm afraid there's not much I can do."

"There isn't much time," Albus hissed. "Harry must come to trust me completely and I need to know his secrets so that I can bend him to my will."

Hermione shivered next to L and they felt a rush of air as the two professors walked past them. L tapped her head again and Hermione shivered as the spell lifted. L was once again visible.

"Come on," he mouthed and they sprinted back to the common room.