Audrey

I was running out of breath a lot sooner than I was hoping I would as our motley crew ran up the staircases towards the seventh floor corridor where the Room of Requirement was located. Not only were we racing to get there, my mind was racing as well. I was worried about the outcome of this night, what was going on with Artemis in the Great Hall, and just everything in general. I was admittedly a nervous wreck, and I was glad when we finally arrived at the blank wall where the door would appear.

I stood at the front of the door, and closed my eyes, concentrating on needing the room. I was hoping a few of the others were trying to get the room to allow us access as well. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes to see a huge door in place of the bare wall. Before I entered it, I turned to face the group. I counted how many of us there were; we were one short of what we should've been. Who were we missing? I shook the thought; maybe I just couldn't count right now.

"Which of you is holding the Horcrux?" I asked.

Hermione raised her hand, as if she was still in class. "I am. Why?"

"We need to destroy it," I explained.

"The only way we know how to is with the sword of Gryffindor, which we don't have now," Ron answered.

Harry shook his head. "No... we can use a basilisk fang. Remember the diary?"

All of the Golden Trio's eyes lit up for a moment. "I think I know where we can find one," Hermione answered.

"Well, you three go take care of it. I'll take the rest of the group and try to find this one, okay?" I instructed. "Meet us back here when you're done." They nodded before taking off. I took a deep breath before looking back at the door. Hesitantly, I entered the Room of Requirement with Holly, Malfoy, and Pansy following close behind me. Once inside, I shut the door behind us, making sure we weren't followed inside.

I glanced around at the piles of misplaced items, discarded junk, and just random items scattered around the giant room. Honestly it disgusted me to know how people treated this room mostly as a giant hiding place for their secrets, trash, and just everything else. It made me even more disgusted that Voldemort had done the same thing teenagers had been doing for decades. I shook the thought as I began to put my focus on the task at hand.

"Now Holly, you said you think it could be a diadem?" I clarified.

Holly nodded. "That's what we're thinking. The only problem is going to be finding it in this disaster..."

I sighed. This was going to be a long process. Hopefully it was sitting somewhere in the open, but somehow I figured I couldn't get that lucky. I was sure it was going to be hidden somewhere in the middle of a pile of junk and we were going to cause an even bigger mess trying to get to it.

"Alright guys... split up then," I announced. "If we spread out we might be able to find it quicker since we'll be covering more ground." I walked away from the rest of them, beginning my solo search for the diadem.

I had no idea where to start. I could imagine that it would be either in a box, or out in the open as opposed to hidden underneath all of the mindless junk. I opened every box I could find, but to no avail, I didn't find it. I was starting to lose hope when I didn't find anything even close to a diadem in the boxes. I stood back up after kneeling next to only the billionth container I had opened. I glanced over at a nearby table and that's when I saw something shimmering in the dim lighting.

I approached the shimmer slowly, and I soon figured out where it had been coming from. I saw a gem shining from behind some miscellaneous items stacked aimlessly on a nearby table. After pushing some of the other things sitting in front of it, I found what we had been looking for. I picked up a silver and blue diadem, holding it delicately in my hands. If that was in fact the Horcrux, I knew I was holding a very valuable and dangerous object in my hand. It was just a shame something so beautiful had to be destroyed.

"Guys... I think I found it!" I shouted, alerting the other three members of my group.

Within only moments, Holly flew over to me before she took the diadem from my hand. She stared at it for a moment before she answered me, "I believe you have! Good eyes girly."

Malfoy and Pansy finally reached us, both with rather confused looks upon their faces. Before they could ask what we were talking about, Holly showed them the tiara, waving it slightly in her hand.

"So we did find it," Malfoy breathed a sigh of relief.

I nodded. "It was a little easier than I thought it would be. It was sitting right out in the open. You would think he would've hid it better than that."

"Right," the blond boy answered. "Now let's go wait for Potter so we can destroy it once and for all."

The four of us slowly made our way back to the door and exited the Room of Requirement. I knew we hadn't been in there for very long, but time was passing ridiculously slowly. Upon exiting, we immediately took our seats by the door that was slowly disappearing once again. We had to wait for the others to finally catch up. I closed my eyes, trying my best to compose myself. When I opened them, I saw Artemis approaching us, and he did not look happy.

"Where did the rest of them go?" he demanded answers.

"They went off to find a basilisk fang to destroy the Horcruxes," I answered him. "I found the diadem, so now we just have to wait for them to get back."

Artemis leaned against the wall next to me. "Well I sincerely hope they hurry up; we don't have much time left. I have a feeling we'll be having company soon enough."

We didn't have to wait long; the Golden Trio bounded up the staircase only moments later. Harry was carrying a basilisk fang in his hand, and the three of them looked like they had been out of breath for a while now.

"We destroyed the cup while we were down there," he explained before anyone could ask. "Did you find the diadem?"

Holly tossed it to him. "Here ya go. Get rid of it already."

"With pleasure," Harry grinned, catching the diadem in his free hand before setting it back on the ground in front of him. After staring at it for a few moments, he stabbed it right in the middle of the sapphire gem with the fang. After only a few seconds, the soul began to escape the jewelry piece in any way it possibly could. I tried my hardest not to look at it, as I was sure it was not a pretty sight. A few minutes later, I opened my eyes to see Harry kicking the diadem aside.

"Alright, we only have two left now," Artemis announced. "Let's get this over with."

"Um... before we continue, I think I'm not the only who whose noticed... but where did the other Mud Boy go?" Holly asked. "I believe his name is Sebastian?"

That's who I was forgetting! I hadn't seen him since we got into the school. No one had noticed him slip away from the group to do Merlin only knows what. I knew there was something fishy about him! I was nearly positive he was up to something.

I almost swear I saw Artemis' eyes flash red for a moment. "Well... for the sake of his life, I sincerely hope he's not doing what the situation suggests," he muttered, and I suddenly knew that things just took a turn for the worst.