Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Author's Note: This is for The Ultimate Doctor Who Episode Competition, The Pandorica Opens division, in which I had to write a story that took place in the fourth or fifth book. This is also for the Fanfiction Tournaments November Round Two, where I had to write a story that took place in a character's third year. Both of these are on the HPFC forum.
The characters here are Romilda Vane (the girl who tried to slip Harry a love potion in HBP), Demelza Robins (who ended up on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in HBP), and Vicky Frobisher (who tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team in OOTP). Since Demelza and Vicky's ages are not known, I've placed them in the same year as Romilda, which is two years below Harry.
Demelza can feel a hand shaking her shoulder, and she opens her eyes blearily. "Huh?" she mumbles, looking into the face of Romilda Vane, one of her two best friends. The other member of their trio, Vicky Frobisher, is standing behind Romilda. "What are you doing?"
"Waking you up, of course," Romilda answers, her voice little more than a whisper. "Get up, come on." She nudges Demelza again, causing her to reluctantly get out of bed. "You might want to put shoes on."
"Where are we going?" Demelza obeys her friend, sliding her feet into shoes and looking from Romilda to Vicky. She glances out the window; the sky is still pitch-black, the stars twinkling faintly. It's probably about two in the morning, by her guess. "What's going on?"
"We're doing something fun." Romilda's eyes twinkle with excitement. It may be late, but no one could have guessed that by looking at her. She doesn't appear tired in the slightest, although that's not a surprise; she's always full of energy, the leader and mastermind of their group. She's the one who comes up with things for them to do. She's the one who does crazy things herself for no apparent reason. She leaves her essays until the last minute, constantly finds herself in detention, stays out just past curfew, and sneaks down to Hogsmeade even when it's not a Hogsmeade weekend. She's got a reputation as the wild one, a reputation that she loves living up to.
"And what is that?"
"Just come on," Romilda replies, tiptoeing toward the door of their dormitory. Vicky and Demelza follow, the latter looking back at the sleeping forms of their two roommates. It's hard to imagine that before this year, she would have been sleeping there innocently while Vicky and Romilda did whatever they wanted. Demelza's the new one, adopted into Vicky and Romilda's friendship just this year, but it feels as though she's always been a part of them. It's impossible to fathom a time without them now.
"Do you know what we're doing?" Demelza whispers to Vicky as they head down the stairs to the common room. "Did she tell you?"
"No," Vicky answers, shaking her head. "Merlin, Romilda," she says, slightly louder, "will you slow down a little? Not all of us enjoy running just after waking up, you know."
"I didn't wake up just now," Romilda says, but she does slow her pace so that she's walking in the middle of the other two girls. They leave the common room, causing a jolt of excitement or nervousness - she can't tell which - to shoot through Demelza. It feels strange to be walking through the halls of Hogwarts when they're dark. The occasional torch lights the way, and Romilda lights her wand, but it's still quite dim. It's cold, too; the school isn't heated at night, since no one is supposed to be out apart from people patrolling.
"Romilda, what are we doing?" Vicky asks quietly, looking around. "You know, if we get caught -"
"We're not going to get caught. Don't worry." Romilda's voice is soft as well, to avoid detection, but even when she speaks quietly she sounds confident and sure of herself. She leads the other two through the corridors and down a few flights of stairs, getting further and further from Gryffindor Tower. Demelza has a hard time keeping track of where they're going; everything seems so different at night, not to mention that, as a third year, she doesn't know her way around as well as one of the older students. She's never been out at this time before, and despite her worry about being caught by a teacher or prefect, her Gryffindor side can't help but be thrilled to be doing something like this.
"Ah, here we are," Romilda says, stopping at a painting. It's a large still life of a bowl of fruit, which seems off to Demelza. Almost all of the Hogwarts paintings have people in them. Romilda reaches up and runs her fingers lightly over the pear in the painting a few times. It vibrates under her touch, and then the painting swings inward to reveal a well-lit kitchen.
A few house-elves are milling about. Demelza can imagine that during the day, there are many more of them on duty, perhaps a hundred or so. At this time, though, there's only about five, all of whom seem very interested in the newcomers. The three girls step into the kitchen, and instantly the house-elves surround them.
"What can Milly do for you, Mistresses?" one of them says, her voice high-pitched and squeaky.
"We'd like a snack," Romilda says, grinning. "How about...hmm...something that can be made quickly..." She pauses, thinking.
"Milly has some leftover cookies from when someone else wanted a snack," says the one who had spoken originally. "Would that please Mistresses?"
"That would be great," Romilda says, and all five of the house-elves rush off. "So," she continues, speaking now to Demelza and Vicky, "this is the kitchen. I overheard a couple other students talking about it the other day, and figured that it would be fun to try out late at night. Combining sneaking out with eating midnight snacks, you know?"
Vicky rolls her eyes, but a smile creeps across her face. "You're something, you know that? You really are."
"I know."
The house-elves return within moments, bearing a platter of cookies. Romilda takes it, and the three girls sit down and eat right where they are, washing it down with milk that the house-elves also bring them. Demelza's fully awake now, and she can see the appeal of doing things like this; sneaking out was thrilling, and seeing the kitchen - where the Hogwarts meals are cooked - is also pretty cool. She's glad, not for the first time, that Romilda and Vicky became friends with her.
As soon as they finish, the three girls bid the house-elves goodbye and leave, heading back the way they had came. About halfway there, they hear footsteps that aren't their own, and a teacher - Demelza thinks it is Professor Sinistra - calls out, "Who's there?"
"Run," Romilda whispers, and the three girls take off. She's in the lead again, showing the other girls the way, and Demelza can't help but wonder how many times Romilda has snuck out before. She seems to know her way around in the dark quite well; she leads the other two down a narrow corridor, and Professor Sinistra's footsteps trail off. The three girls are breathing heavily, but there's a smile on Romilda's face. "Merlin," she whispers, "that's never happened before."
"Let's get back to Gryffindor Tower, should we?" Vicky answers, still looking around as though she's worried about someone coming upon them. There's a grin splitting her face as well, though, that belies her nervousness.
They walk the rest of the way back at a fast pace, their steps almost in sync, and Demelza can't help but feel closer than ever to the other two girls. There's something about sneaking out and almost getting in trouble together that causes camaraderie, and Demelza feels it strongly as they return to the safety of the common room and of the dormitory. She can't help but hope that they remain friends for a very long time; she can't help but hope that they do something as interesting and exciting as this again.
She falls into bed, figuring that she won't be able to sleep for a while, and relives what just happened. This might just be the beginning of a new Demelza - bolder, less cautious, more like Romilda - for she feels that something has fundamentally changed. She smiles to herself as she rolls over, wondering what else the three of them will eventually do. After all, with the three of them together, there's bound to be adventures.