Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 71: A Little Adventure
"Lyra, I don't think we should be doing this…" Ginny didn't feel that this was right.
It was Sunday morning and the three girls were sneaking around the manor basement.
"My brother has been doing something in secret all week. He disappears all of a sudden and not even Mipsy knows where he is." Lyra commented.
She then felt a tug on her sleeve. It was Astoria looking at her.
"How."
"How did I find out then?" Lyra guessed what the other girl wanted to ask.
"I was able to get it from Dobby."
"Isn't Dobby your family house elf too? How come he knows something and Mipsy doesn't." wondered Ginny.
"Dobby is not the family house elf. He is Harry's personal elf."
Lyra felt another tug from Astoria.
"I don't know where he got it from. My parents are very quiet about it. They also told me to not mention the elf's name to anyone. Is supposed to be a secret…." Lyra glanced at the two girls.
"So don't say anything, okay?"
Both Ginny and Astoria nodded.
"So, if Dobby already told you what he's doing…why are going to spy on him again?" Asked Ginny.
"He didn't tell me what he is doing…just that he goes to some hidden room in the second basement. I don't think he was supposed to tell me that because afterward, he started hitting his head against the wall. "
"He what?!" Ginny sounded horrified.
"Dobby does that sometimes…if he thinks he's done something wrong. He said he has to punish himself." Lyra explained.
"That's awful!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Awful." Astoria agreed.
"Hey, is not my fault! Harry said that his previous Master was very cruel to him and always told him to punish himself." Lyra explained.
"He must have been a terrible person. Do you know what happened to the previous Master?" Asked Ginny.
"No…I think my parents are hiding something important and is about Harry," said Lyra.
"Mysterious… " Astoria muttered. She also felt there was something odd about him.
"Wow, you are very talkative today," Lyra observed.
"I still don't think is right to spy on him," Ginny added.
"You can consider it a payback for what happened yesterday. "
"That was an accident…and you forgave for that already, remember?." Ginny pointed out.
"I did…" Lyra admited.
"But it doesn't mean that we can't get a bit of payback. " she grinned at Ginny.
"Don't you want a bit of revenge? he probably got a good look at your butt."
"H-He did not!. I had a towel." Ginny became flushed red.
"What about you?, you didn't even try to cover. " Lyra told Astoria.
The other girl shrugged.
"You should care more about boys seeing you! That's for like…your boyfriend or something." Lyra didn't know a lot about those matters. But that's what the books her mother liked so much, always talk about.
"This basement is massive, do you know where we are going?" Ginny changed the subject to something more important at the moment. They have been wandering the place for over thirty minutes already.
"I have only been here twice. I think Mom had her old school books stored here, and some of her stuff from when she lived with her muggle family. But…I have never ventured this far." Lyra explained.
The basement of the Potter Manor was not just one big room but it was instead separated in many corridors with several bifurcations along the way, making it very confusing to navigate.
"I'm sure this basement is bigger than my house…" Ginny commented.
"I don't care about the size, but why did they have to make it so… maze-like," Lyra complained.
"At this rate, we are just going to get lost…and then we will get in trouble with your parents!" Ginny was starting to panic.
"Calm down, we just nee-mmmm!" Lyra felt a hand covering her mouth al a sudden.
It was Astoria the one who did it.
"Noise…"
The other two realized now that they were in complete silence. There was a bit of noise coming from somewhere nearby.
"Shhh!" Lyra put a finger on her lips to tell her friends to remain in silence. Mostly to Ginny….she didn't need to ask that to Astoria.
They followed the noise until they reached a big painting of some old man at the end of a short corridor.
"It has to be here. I can hear noise coming from behind the painting." Lyra whispered.
"Then…maybe there some mechanism to open it. Try look-"
"Password?"
Ginny was interrupted when the painting moved and the old man inside spoke to them.
The three girls were startled and looked at the old man inside the painting.
"An enchanted portrait…I read about these. Hogwarts has many of them. I didn't know we had any here." Lyra observed the painting with great interest.
"Who is the old man thought? You think is an old ancestor or something?" Asked Ginny.
"Password." the man asked again.
"Hello." Lyra greeted him with a smile.
"I'm Lyra Potter, I live here…I just want to go see my brother. I think he is on the other side so…can you let us pass?"
"Password." The old man requested.
"I don't think he can say anything else…" Ginny concluded.
"Then this is not like the paintings I read about…if we don't give him the password it will be impossible to get through. " Said Lyra.
"Hello, Sir. Can we get a clue about this password at least?" Requested Ginny.
"Password." The old man replies.
"Never mind…he can't say anything else." Ginny gave up.
"Well, I have no idea what the password could be. Should I try something random?...emm…ohhh, I know! The password is treacle tart!. That's my brother's favorite.
The old man looked at Lyra with a frown.
"Wrong."
"Is not that?....let me think. What about…I love reading boring books."
"Wrong." The tone of the old man grew more stern.
"This is difficult, I don't know much about my new brother…what about-"
"Stop." Austria covered her mouth.
"Lyra look!" Ginny pointed at the old man in the painting.
"He looks more…angry now." Ginny noticed.
"I don't think we should be guessing the answer anymore. I have the feeling that something bad could happen. "
Astoria nodded.
"Bad."
"You are right…" Lyra realized it now.
"And I don't think the password was set by Harry anyway…this place looks super old. He was probably just given the password by Dad. But what could it be then?"
"Family words." Austria pointed at the painting.
The blazon of the Potters was engraved at the top. A blue hippogriff over a silver field. And the old man was wearing the same colors on his tunic. Indicating that this man was indeed an old member of the Potter family.
"The family words…" Lyra did her best to recall. She knew her father had mentioned them at least once or twice during their lessons.
Then…they came to her.
"Honour thy blood."
"Correct." the old man smiled at her and the painting opened up, revealing a set of descending stairs.
-A.N: the family words are a reference to one of my favorite HP fics by TheBlack'sResurgence