Chapter 22: The Chamber Below the Foundations

The entrance to Cassia Vane's wand-locked journal box took four minutes and a hairpin that Hermione produced from her robe pocket with the manner of someone who had long since stopped being embarrassed about practical preparedness. Holmes did not comment on this. He was already reading.

The journal was small and densely filled, the handwriting growing tighter toward the later entries in the way that suggested escalating mental traffic rather than diminishing space. Cassia Vane had been, Holmes noted, a precise and unsentimental observer. She recorded dates and times as a matter of reflex. She used abbreviations for recurring subjects — AP appearing first on the fourth of October and with increasing frequency thereafter.

He read the final three entries standing in the Ravenclaw study alcove with the locked box open at his feet, Hermione beside him holding the lamp. The last entry was dated six days before her death. It read: *AP in lower corridor (third sub-level) past midnight. No lantern. Knew the way. I followed as far as the second stair. The door he found is not on any map I have access to. I will look again tomorrow. I should not have let him see me.*