Chapter 34: Teamwork
Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 34: Teamwork
The seventh-floor corridor was empty and silent, lit only by the faint glow of torches.
Harry walked to the blank stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, teaching trolls to dance ballet. He closed his eyes, focused his thoughts, and paced three times.
'I need a place where my friends and I can brew a potion without being discovered. I need a place where no one will find us. I need a place that will keep us safe.'
The stone wall rippled like water, and a door materialised where no door had been before.
Draco, standing behind him, let out a sharp breath. "How did you…?"
"It's called the Room of Requirement," Harry said, pushing the door open. Warm golden light spilled into the corridor. "It appears when you need it. And it provides whatever you need. Now, come on, let's get inside before anyone sees us."
He stepped inside, and the others followed.
The room had transformed into a spacious, well‑equipped potions laboratory. The walls were rough stone, lined with shelves holding dozens of glass phials, beakers, and measuring tools.
A long wooden workbench dominated the centre, its surface polished and clean.
Pansy walked in slowly, her dark eyes wide. "Whoa...I knew this castle had many secret rooms, but I never expected it to have something like this."
"And you say that the room provides anything you need?" Crabbe asked while glancing at all the brewing tools before them.
Harry nodded. "You just have to think about it, and the room will try to accommodate your needs."
"That is brilliant!" Said Draco, looking very excited to be here. "How did you find this place?"
"I found it during the Christmas holidays while wandering around the castle. I was thinking about how I needed a place to practice spells without anyone seeing me. I was frustrated, tired, and… the door just appeared." Harry explained.
He couldn't tell them the truth...that he had known about it from another world, another story. The memory of reading about this very room in a battered paperback, lying in a hospital bed, felt like a lifetime ago. And in a way, it was.
Crabbe ran his thick fingers along the smooth stone of the workbench. "Useful," he grunted.
Draco raised an eyebrow but didn't press further. "Lucky."
"Very lucky," Harry agreed, and he meant it.
They gathered around the workbench. Harry pulled the recipe for the Deep‑Water Draught from his pocket. He had it in a folded piece of parchment covered in his neat, cramped handwriting.
The ingredients sat in small glass vials: essence of Lily of the Valley, powdered Merperson scales, and the frozen Bicorn horn shavings. As well as a few other rare components that Kippy, the Greengrass house‑elf, had smuggled into the castle.
"Daphne helped me get these ingredients and brew the first batch," Harry said, laying out the vials in order. "But she won't be joining us for this one."
Pansy looked up from the recipe. Her dark eyes were red‑rimmed because she hadn't been sleeping well, and the hollow look in her face had only deepened since her return. "Why not?"
Harry met her gaze. "She wanted to stay away the moment she found out that the Headmaster may be involved in what happened to your brother. I think her family had already lost too much and doesnt want to risk what's left."
"Can't blame her for that, Harry." Said Draco.
Everyone here had lost much under the rule of Albus Dumbledore. But even among them, no one had lost more than Pansy.
Their eyes moved to the black-haired girl. She was silent for a moment before nodding slowly.
"I understand," Pansy said. "Daphne and I have talked about our families a few times. Her father is in Azkaban. Her mother is struggling to keep the shop in Knockturn Alley. And her sister..." she stopped, her jaw tightening. "It's not my place to speak about that. But trust me, Harry. She has a good reason to be scared of the Headmaster."
"Yes, we can respect her decision," Draco said firmly. "She has already helped us enough. I dont think we could have found these ingredients otherwise."
Crabbe cleared his throat. He had been studying the recipe, his thick finger tracing the lines of text, his lips moving silently as he read. "I can lead the brewing."
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Are you sure?" Draco asked.
Crabbe shrugged, his broad shoulders rising and falling. "My family doesnt have as much history with potions as the Greengrass, but my mother and I love brewing potions, and she has been teaching me since I was little. You know...brewing is not that different from cooking. You follow the recipe and mix the ingredients in the correct order."
He pointed at the recipe. "This is complicated...more complicated than anything I've done before. But I think I can do it."
Harry thought of Crabbe's quiet competence in Potions class, the way he never fumbled his ingredients, the way he always seemed to know when to stir and when to wait. He doesnt speak much about it, but he is always paying attention and taking notes during class.
"Okay," Harry said. "Lead the way."
"Yeah, you can do it, Vincent." Draco patted his back.
Crabbe took charge with a calm authority that surprised them all.
He measured the ingredients with careful precision...his large hands were extremely gentle as he followed the process.
He explained each step before he took it, making sure everyone understood.
"First, the Lily of the Valley essence...we need seven drops, no more, no less. It's the base. If you add too much, the potion becomes unstable. If you add too little, the barrier won't form properly."
Draco handed him the vial. Crabbe tilted it, counting the drops aloud. "One… two… three…"
The liquid swirled into the cauldron, turning the clear water pale green. A faint, sweet, flowery scent rose from the surface.
"Now the Bicorn horn shavings," Crabbe continued. "They need to be added slowly, one pinch at a time, while stirring clockwise. The horn contains magical preservatives that stabilise the barrier against cold."
Pansy took the horn shavings and sprinkled them in, her hand steady despite the tremble in her shoulders. The potion hissed softly and turned a deeper shade of blue.
For an hour, they worked together in focused silence.
Harry chopped ingredients...roots, herbs, dried leaves, into precise, uniform pieces. His knife work had improved since the first potions class. He had Daphne to thank for that.
Draco monitored the flames while Pansy filtered a cloudy mixture through a fine mesh strainer, separating solids from liquid.
Crabbe stirred, added ingredients, and adjusted the potion as it went on, his face always calm and focused.
Then the potion turned orange.
"That's not right," Draco said, stepping back from the cauldron. His wand was still raised, but his eyes were wide. "It should be silver by now."
Pansy's hands trembled. "Did we do something wrong? Did I add the wrong measurement?"
Crabbe studied the bubbling liquid, his brow furrowed in concentration. "The temperature spiked. The flame must have flared when Draco adjusted it." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch. "My mother taught me this trick. She said it saved a batch of Draught of Living Death when her grandmother brewed it too hot."
He poured a pinch of crushed moonstone into the cauldron. The powder glittered as it fell, and the orange liquid began to swirl. The colour deepened, darkened...and then, slowly, transformed into a shimmering silver.
"That was amazing!" Pansy exclaimed.
"You saved the potion!" Draco said, looking genuinely impressed. His usual scepticism was gone, replaced by respect.
Harry smiled. "That was great, Vincent."
Crabbe's cheeks flushed slightly. "We still have another hour of brewing. Don't celebrate just yet."
While the potion simmered, they spent the time conversing.
Draco leaned against the workbench, his arms crossed. "My father once told me about a rumour...something that's been floating around Hogwarts for centuries. A secret chamber."
"You mean The Chamber of Secrets?" Pansy asked. "I also heard about that one. My brother was obsessed with Hogwarts mysteries and liked to talk with me about the things he found in old dusty tomes..." She smiled, reminiscing about the past.
Harry's ears perked up. "The Chamber of Secrets?. What is that?" He asked just to check if it was the same as the one he knew about.
"I dont think it's recorded in any history books," Draco said. "My father said that it was just an old legend passed from one student to another. He had heard it from some seniors during his time at Hogwarts."
"And what did this legend say?" Harry asked.
"The legend says that Godric Gryffindor himself built a hidden chamber somewhere in the castle...a place where he stored his most powerful spells and artifacts. Things that could change the balance of power in the magical world."
Pansy frowned. "But no one ever found it."
"Many have tried," Draco said. "The legend says only the true heir of Gryffindor can open it. Someone who embodies the founder's ideals... Someone worthy of his legacy."
The room fell silent while the potion bubbled softly.
"If anyone fits in the role of Gryffindor's Heir is..." Pansy said quietly, "It's Albus Dumbledore. That's what everyone says."
Harry's stomach tightened. "You...you dont think the third-floor corridor leads into this Chamber of Gryffindor?"
Draco shrugged. "I'll admit that I thought about it. What could be so important for the Headmaster to go to such lengths to protect it?... What if the legendary chamber is there?. Or at least some clue of its location."
"If my brother thought that the Chamber could be there..." She paused. "He would have been willing to take a huge risk to find it."
"It was just an idea, Pansy," Draco said. "The Chamber of Secrets probably doesnt exist. I mean... It's been a thousand years since the school was founded. If it were here, someone should have found it by now."
"It doesnt really matter what's in there, does it?. "Crabbe stirred the potion absently. "Whatever it is, Alistair died trying to find out."
The silence that followed was heavy with grief and unspoken fear.
The potion was finished just before the time for curfew.
Crabbe ladled it into four glass vials, each one glowing faintly silver.
The liquid swirled and shimmered, exactly like the batch Daphne had brewed weeks ago. When held up to the light, it casts tiny rainbows on the stone walls.
"Four doses," Crabbe said. "We dont have enough to make any tests, so we will need to be very careful while diving into the lake."
Harry uncorked one of the vials and gave it a sniff. "Well...it looks and smells the same as the one Daphne made." It had the same metallic smell.
"That gives me some confidence," Crabbe said.
Draco let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. "That's good."
"We'll dive tomorrow night," Harry said. "We need to be rested. And we need to be careful."
They cleaned the workbench and stored the potions for later use.
They walked out of the Room of Requirement, into the empty dark corridor.
"We'd better up the pace. We dont want to get caught wandering the castle." Draco suggested, and they hurried back up to the dungeons.
Harry was tired but satisfied. The potion was ready. Tomorrow, they would dive. Tomorrow, Pansy would see her brother, and they would get all of the answers.
He glanced back, just once, over his shoulder.
A shadow detached itself from a tapestry near the end of the corridor.
It was tall, vaguely human-shaped, and darker than the darkness around it.
It slipped around a corner and disappeared.
Harry froze.
"What is it?" Draco asked, noticing his sudden silence.
Harry stared at the empty corner. His heart hammered in his chest. His palms were sweating despite the cold.
"I think that...I saw something moving behind us."
They all looked in the same direction as Harry, but there was nothing there.
"It was probably your imagination, Harry," Draco said. "These torches tend to create shadows that seem to move around."
"I happened to me more than once when I was walking alone..." Crabbe admitted.
"Besides, if it were a professor of Prefect, they would have told us something, like...that we need to hurry up to our rooms," Pansy added.
Harry nodded, and they continued.
He didn't want to argue with his friends, but he had the feeling that someone had been truly there...watching them.
That night, Harry could not sleep.
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