AN: The first few chapters of this fanfiction are an introduction and contain some of the nuances of the story. The main adventure begins at around the 5th chapter, though the 4th does include some useful information for future chapters.
Happy reading!
There was never any doubt that this was the stupidest thing they had ever done. Hermione had told them it was stupid, but then again she was always doing that. Nevertheless, nobody was going to help them out of this mess.
It was less than a term into Harry and Ron's first year at Hogwarts and they had already helped Fred and George, Ron's older brothers, to sneak into the Owlery late at night to mail a Hogwarts toilet seat to their younger sister, Ginny. It was quite a surprise when their old owl, Errol, dropped the toilet seat onto Fred's head at breakfast the next day, with a charming note attached from Mrs. Weasley. Harry and Ron were also in the habit of exploring the castle whenever they had the opportunity, whether that opportunity was a weekend or night-time. It had always gone swimmingly, with so many discoveries to be made, but there had been plenty of narrow escapes, especially when Snape was on the prowl.
This time, however, the pair were convinced that there was a secret chamber in the dungeons, accessible only from Snape's office. Snape was a sneaky slimeball, and so he'd clearly hidden something in a secret dungeon. Maybe it was treasure, like in the Muggle stories. Maybe it was a store of illicit potions and illegal ingredients. Maybe it was a crypt, storing the remains of his least favourite pupils. Hopefully it would be full of dangerous draughts and bubbling brews which they could test. Harry and Ron knew Snape would be patrolling the corridors early Tuesday morning, from midnight, so they snuck out then. Thankfully the Fat Lady was fast asleep, so she didn't catch them sneaking out. At the end of the charms corridor they thought they caught a glimpse of Mrs. Norris' tail, but the rest of the expedition was uneventful.
"You take this side," whispered Harry as they entered Snape's office, "and I'll check around his desk for secret switches and levers and hidden panels and scrolls and potions and treasure." Ron had to shush him to get him to calm down. Usually it was he, Ron, that got over-excited. Harry opened drawers upon drawers in the desk. Within each drawer there were more, smaller drawers which seemed to grow as you focused on them, only to reveal even more drawers among their contents. This truly was a magical desk, but it wasn't what they were looking for. As he finished with the tiny compartments on the legs of the desk, Ron suggested that they look in the adjoining room.
"But that's Snape's room!" complained Harry. "I'm not going in there!"
"If Snape really is hiding something it'll be in his room..." Both Harry and Ron jumped, and spun round to see Hermione leaning against the doorframe. She was wearing her nightdress and was carrying The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three by Miranda Goshawk, clearly having come straight from the dormitories. "Oh, honestly!" she sighed. "Don't you know anything about people? Everyone keeps their most important things close to them, usually in their rooms."
"And their most private things," grinned Ron
"Whatever you're thinking, Ronald, I don't want to know," she retorted, shaking her head. Harry thought he saw the tiniest hint of a smile on her face, but it was probably just the moonlight. Hermione had become a lot more friendly since Harry and Ron had saved her from the troll earlier this week. She pushed open the door to Snape's cavern-like room and led the boys inside. Snape's bed consisted of a thin mattress on a crude wooden pallet, and all of his furniture appeared just as rustic.
"Why would a wizard sleep in such a crude bed?" wondered Hermione. Not caring, Harry and Ron proceeded to bounce on it with glee. With looks of shock, the immediately bounced off as the bed gave a loud crunch. Hermione began to scold them when they heard footsteps echoing off the walls of the dungeon corridor. Someone was coming. There was nowhere to run to. The only way out was through Snape's office, through the dungeon and along the corridor where the footsteps were coming from. Ron tore his roving eyes from a letter under Snape's pillow and stuffed it in his pocket as the footsteps came to a halt outside the office door. As quickly as a cockroach, the three of them ran into Snape's wardrobe and silently shut the doors.
Hermione peered through the gap in the roughly-carved doors as Snape walked into his room, lighting the torches in the wall brackets. He then opened the ragged curtains in the window just above the level of the lake, letting the first feeble rays of the rising sun crawl into the room. There was no way he couldn't hear all three of their hearts beating. Snape left the room, seemingly oblivious of the three intruders, to prepare for the first lesson of the day, a lesson in which each of them should be taking their places. But there was no way they could get into the lesson without being noticed. There would be no making Potions of Portliness for any of them.
"How will we pass our exams if we don't know how to make a Potion of Portliness?" moaned Hermione. "I'm going to fail and it's all because of your ridiculous escapades. I should never have come with you..." Harry and Ron took no notice of her, scuffling around in the back of the wardrobe.
Suddenly, there was a click and the back of the wardrobe opened up, tipping Harry, Ron and Hermione down a large shaft. They couldn't help but to cry out. As Ron and Harry's robes flapped above their heads, Hermione could swear she saw Snape looking down at them. They plummeted down the shaft until the wardrobe doors became a pinpoint of light in the distance and they had no way of telling how far down they were or how far was left to fall. Would they fall like this forever?