Hermione found that sneaking into Honeyduke's Sweet shop was significantly easier than she expected it to be. With the time being still earlier in the morning, the store was practically empty. Hermione was left alone with the cashier who was convinced that he too, was alone.

Careful of creaky floorboards, Hermione made her way around the store, stuffing various treats into the pockets of her robes with caution. She was in and out of the store before the cashier could raise a finger, and darted back to the shack as quickly as she could, even though the invisibility cloak would allow her to take all the time in the world.

The knocking on the door of the shack startled Remus, but seeing the new girl remove her cloak eased him a bit more.

"I've got the candy. Twenty galleons worth," spoke Harper, out of breath. She had the cloak draped across her arm and held the candy, letting herself in to the shack.

"Any chocolate?" Remus said as he searched through the pile of candy that Harper had just set down. She didn't even have to respond: within seconds he found an individually wrapped piece of chocolate, took off the wrappings, and popped it into his mouth despite it still being morning.

Hermione chuckled as she watched Remus get his hands on all of the chocolate, overjoyed. She was pretty sure that Remus mumbled, "amazing," but his mouth stuffed with chocolate made it difficult to tell.

Continuously, Hermione tried to keep Remus off of her mind. But with him standing right in front of her, it was especially difficult. Never before had she found someone obsessing over chocolate to be cute.

"It's still morning, Remus," Hermione laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I won't eat it all. Peter wants to use some of the candy as a gift for Emma Vanity."

"Peter's never striked me as a lady's man before."

"You'd be surprised," Remus laughed, "he's had more girlfriends than I have."

"Really?"

"Well, I've only had one, and if things work out between Emma and Peter, she'll be his third."

"Who?" Hermione blurted out.

"Sorry?"

"Who, um, have you dated before? I was just wondering," Hermione babbled. She instantly regretted it.

"Oh, I, um, went out with Dorcas Meadowes during our fourth year. But we were too young, so, um, it didn't work out."

"But you're friends now, so that's good, right?"

"Yeah, something like that," Remus spoke awkwardly. The silence that followed seemed to last a lifetime for both Remus and Hermione, but it was shortly broken by the chocolate-loving boy.

"I should probably give you the next clue now," he said, finally.

Drowning in embarrassment, Hermione patiently waited for Remus to pull the next clue out from his pocket. Soon enough he did, while Hermione hoped that it wouldn't be too difficult to decipher.
This time, the clue was written in distinctly larger
letters. She couldn't pinpoint exactly whose handwriting the clue belonged to, just that it was a lot messier than its counterparts. The clue read:

Doused in green and silver,
Trust me, we don't belong,
Snakes sliver in,
and seek revenge if you do them wrong.

"The Slytherin Common Room?" Hermione asked Remus, quick to solve the easy riddle.

"Well, I can't technically say if you're wrong or right, but,"

"I am right though, aren't I?" she laughed.

Remus chuckled back at Harper, waved an arm in her direction and said, "just go!" giving up.

The two separated in laughs, almost forgetting the awkward interaction from only moments before. While Hermione felt embarrassment, Remus was curious as to why the new girl wanted to know about who he's dated.

While Remus remained puzzled, Hermione set off for the Slytherin common room with James' cloak on and her wand in hand. Because she tagged along with Lily to watch one of James and Sirius' pranks on a group of Slytherins, even Harper knew where that common room was located. The trouble was, however, getting in.

Once she arrived at the dungeons of Hogwarts, Hermione knew that just the cloak and her wand would not be enough to get her into the Slytherin common room. So, at the long stretch of stone wall where she remembered the entrance to be, Hermione camped out and waited for a Slytherin to use the password.

Soon enough, a short and scrawny boy who appeared to be a first year approached the stretch of the stone wall dressed in green and silver robes. He grabbed his wand from his pocket and tapped it on a particular stone, whispering the name, "Salazar," in the process. Almost instantly, the individual stones moved to make way for the small boy to walk through. And after he did, the stones quickly returned to their original place.

Now, Hermione knew what she had to do. With the cloak still on, she made her way over to where the first year had stood, used her wand to tap the same stone that he did, and whispered the password of "Salazar."

Just like that, the stones moved for the intruding girl, paving the way for a staircase that descended deep underground. Soon enough, a musky scent grew stronger and the common room finally came into view. Nearly empty, Hermione assumed that most people were taking a late breakfast.

The lack of windows and the green lanterns hanging above made the common room feel like a cage. The life-sized snake hanging above the mantel owned the room, and the few Slytherins present surrounded it by the fire place.

Hermione moved aside to one of the green walls in order to get out of the way. With her back on one of the many tapestries of famous Slytherins, Hermione analyzed the room, unsure of what exactly to look for. Instantly drawn to the bookshelf, Hermione felt among the book while creating as little noise as possible for what felt like hours.

Eventually, Hermione noticed a slip of parchment the same size as all previous clues sticking out of a textbook. Nonchalantly, she pulled the book, Ancient Runes Made Easy, underneath the cloak. On the parchment, Hermione noticed, was a collection of runes that she used the book to translate. "In the bathroom," the runes translated to, so that's where Hermione knew to go next.

After dodging a few more Slytherins coming down from their dorms, Hermione made her way to the bathroom and found Marlene in the third stall she opened, dressed in Slytherin robes.

"That was quickly than I thought! It only took you an hour to find me," Marlene first whispered, after telling Harper that she had cast the Muffalatio charm to avoid being heard. Marlene pulled another piece of parchment from her Slytherin-charmed robes and handed it to the new girl.

"Wait, don't I have to complete some sort of task?"

"Your task was to find me in the Slytherin common room, so you can have the next clue now," she said.

"I guess that was rather difficult," Hermione said as she unfolded the next clue from Marlene. It read:

Surrounding the castle,
Merfolk swim here,
But be careful to watch out,
For the giant squid near.

"If you don't get this right away, I'll be shocked," Marlene spoke.

"I think I know it," said Hermione, unable to remember whether anyone had told Harper about the Black Lake yet. She didn't want to make anyone question her surprising knowledge of Hogwarts, considering Harper had only been on school grounds for two weeks. But since it was a rather obvious clue, Hermione thought it was safe enough.

"Good, let's get out of this bloody place," said Marlene in reply as she joined the new girl underneath James' cloak. The two Gryffindor girls escaped the commons room much quickly than anticipated, and exited through the stone wall without causing suspicion. Before leaving Harper, Marlene charmed her robes back to normal and wished her good luck.

When the clock struck noon, Hermione was on her way to the lake. She kept the cloak on just in case, and walked all across the Hogwarts school grounds until spotting Alice and Frank at the shore.

Hermione sat James' cloak to the side once Alice and Frank came into view, and Frank tossed a swimsuit and googles in her direction.

"You'll need this for your next activity," Frank said as he tossed and swimsuit and goggles in Harper's direction. And one trip to the outhouse later, Harper was ready to hop into the water, shivering from the cool autumn wind already.

"So, for this one," Alice said, "your job is to travel to the bottom of the lake, and take back something that the merfolk took from you. And don't worry, the thing they took from you has been cast with a waterproof charm," she said, "it won't be damaged."

Upon Alice telling her about this task, Hermione was reminded of the Triwizard Tournament during her fourth year. She wondered if this type of thing happened a lot, the merfolk taking something, or someone, away from you. But, Alice broke Hermione's thoughts once again.

"You're free to use any charms or spells you need, except Accio," she said, "You may begin."

Following in the footsteps of the late Cedric Diggory, now newborn, in this time, Hermione cast the Bubblehead charm over her head. Alice and Frank wished the new girl good luck as she plunged into the freezing water, sitting back until she broke through the surface once again.

And as Hermione dove into the water, she swam down to the bottom of the lake as quickly as she could, with her wand in hand and the bubble around her neck. She avoided the fish, swam through the seaweed, and spotted merfolk swimming near the muggy sand of the bottom.

Hermione thought it would be best to follow the merfolk, since they had what had been taken from her. She didn't know how long she had been under at this point, but it sure had been a while; she felt as if she were running out of air.

Still following the merfolk, Hermione spotted her charmed trunk, with the initials H.S. carved into the side. With her wand, she broke the trunk free from the grasp of the merfolk, and swam forward it as it began to cloak towards the surface.

But all of the sudden, Hermione's bubble popped before she could get another breath in. From then on, it was a race to the surface, anxious both for breath and the safety of her trunk. Hermione's fight to the surface felt like a century of swimming with no way out but up. But when she did finally hit the surface, the air that she breathed in gave her the energy she needed to drag both herself and her trunk to shore.

Frank and Alice gave Harper a round of applause as she made it to shore with her trunk, alive.

"Merlin's Beard, Harper, you were under there for nearly an hour!" shouted Frank from the shore as Hermione waded in, carrying her now dry trunk. Alice politely held out a towel for the freezing girl, who took it with pleasure.

"That task was bloody hard, you should be proud of yourself," Alice congratulated her. Frank nodded. Still out of breath, however, Hermione set down her trunk and took a seat on the grass.

She could barely push out the words, "thanks, guys," before gasping for more air. Alice and Frank kept telling Harper to take as much time as she needed to recover before starting the next clue, but she soon insisted on getting back into her initiation.

"I'm alright, I promise, just a little tired," Hermione spike back at them, wringing her hair out with the towel that Alice gave her.

Soon, Hermione changed back into the clothes she arrived in and was given the next clue by Alice and Frank. She unfolded the parchment, read, and soon analyzed the neatly written words.

Three paces left, three paces right,
It's time to think with all of your might,
Where it's hidden you may not know,
But by your requirement soon it will show.

A/N: so that's the 11th chapter! thanks so much for 300+ views!

A/N UPDATE (7/5/20): happy july 5th everyone. hope you had an amazing day and enjoyed this chapter that took me nearly three hours to rewrite. but, thanks to my random burst of motivation, i found time to update this story within a few days! if you're reading this ily.     - callahan