It was christmas. Most of the students had left Hogwarts, and Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione were all that was left of Gryffindor. They spent their first day sitting at the common room, playing endless games of wizarding chess, or maybe exploring deeper into Hogwarts' depths. None of them wanted to be at Hogwarts, but Hermione's parents were still having their memories recollected and Ron's parents were abroad doing ministry business. They were at their 8th year in Hogwarts, since they had skipped their 7th year destroying horcruxes.

On the second day, Harry was heading back to the Gryffindor common room when he saw a passageway that he had never seen before on the third floor. It was a long hallway, with damp lights and musty candles being the only source of light. At the end of the hallway, there seemed to be an opening. Harry, never seeing this passageway, and feeling a little courageous, turned his path around and walked straight down the passageway, towards the opening.

The opening was a circular room, with green smoke issuing out of a stone table in the center. When Harry walked through the green smoke, he saw that on the table there was a golden necklace. He suddenly heard a commotion behind him, and turned around fast enough to see two hufflepuffs walk pass the passageway. However, none of them seemed to take notice of it. Harry, who started to feel a little uneasy about how he was able to see the passageway and others couldn't, hesitantly grabbed the necklace. It was cold and dusty, but after brushing off some of the dust, it looked as good as new. Harry turned and began to head back to the Gryffindor common room, wanting to tell Ron and Hermione about his discovery.

Hermione was outraged that Harry had dared pick up the necklace.

"It could have had a curse on it, you know." she said glaringly.

"Yeah, but I'm not dead, am I?" Harry retorted. It was half an hour after Harry had found the necklace, and he had just finished explaining what had happened.

"Well, forget about Harry dying, what does the necklace do?" asked Ron.

The necklace was sitting on the table in the common room, and it looked pretty lifeless to Harry. Hermione had already performed a large variety of spells on it that ensured that the necklace was safe to touch and examine. "It doesn't look like a dark artifact to me…" said Harry, poking the necklace with his wand.

"Maybe it'll do something if I go back to the hallway."

"Well if you're going, then we're going." said Ron, as if it was an obvious choice.

Harry wasn't going to argue against that. That corridor creeped him out nearly as much as the basilisk speaking to him through the walls in his second year.

That night, the three of them headed to the third floor under the cover of Harry's invisibility cloak, and Harry made a beeline for the corridor. Finally, he saw it. The green smoke was gone, but it looked just as cold and creepy as before.

"Damn, I really don't like this place." said Ron. As the three of them slowly walked through the corridor, Harry noticed that his necklace seemed to glow a little brighter. When they reached the opening, Harry yelped. Standing in the corner was a massive statue of somebody. Harry didn't know who it was.

"What's wrong matey?" asked Ron.

"That statue wasn't there when I last came here." said Harry.

"Should be fine, it's probably just another statue of Gregory the Smarmy." Harry frowned. There were over 300 statues of Gregory the Smarmy on hogwarts grounds, it wasn't likely that there was another one. Suddenly, there was a deep grinding noise, and Harry turned around in time to see the statue turn slowly to face them. It's mouth was closed, but a voice came out of it.

"Finally." The voice was cold and stony, as if whatever was speaking was hundreds of years old."Finally, two worthy ones have wandered into my territory."

Harry and Hermione began to back up, Harry raising his wand, but Ron didn't move. The statue suddenly began to walk. It slowly got off its pedestal and began to lumber towards them. Its right hand reached back and drew out a sword made of stone, advancing on them. Ron still stood there, transfixed.

"Ron! Get back!" yelled Hermione. But Ron couldn't move, literally. Something had prevented him from doing so, and he was staring, transfixed at the statue, which had picked up its pace. The statue pointed its sword at Ron, and a jet of green light flew out. It collided with Ron and he burst into a pile of dust. Harry watched, open-mouthed, as his best friend was disintegrated, and before he could even think up of a curse to use, the statue had pointed its sword at Harry and Hermione.

There was yet another flash of light, and their wands erupted into flames, disintegrating. Harry roared like a bull and charged at the statue, beyond all reason, wanting to avenge his best friend's death. But he didn't make it far. The statue knocked him out, then grabbed Hermione by the neck and knocked her out as well.

Planning on making this a long term story, 1 chapter a week.