A story for the Word/Phrase of the Day Competition.

Word: Procrastination.

Harry and Ron were sitting down in the Gryffindor common room, while Hermione quizzed them on Potions.

"Okay, what is the moonlace root?" she asked.

"No idea," answered Ron. Harry agreed.

"You two are pathetic," said Hermione.

Just at that moment, Fred and George came into the common room. "Hello Harry," said Fred, while George said, "Can we borrow your Invisibility Cloak?"

"Urm, what do you need it for?" asked Harry.

"Oh, um, we needed to do, um, things," said Fred.

"Things? That sounds exciting!" shouted Ron, jumping up while Harry said, "Anything to get away from these bloody Potions!"

"Now, guys, studying is important!" complained Hermione. Ron told her to shut up.

Two minutes later, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George were travelling underneath the Invisibility Cloak, which had been enlarged due to a spell cast by Hermione. They kept travelling through corridors and hallways until they finally arrived at a familiar door.

"The third corridor, left-hand side," whispered Hermione. "What are we doing here?"

"Well, you see, a while ago, Fred and I here were exploring this hallway," George explained. "But then we saw Filch, and seeing as he doesn't like us very much, we ducked into this corridor."

Fred continued, "Well, once we heard him leave, we decided to explore our surroundings, and you know what? George, the big oaf, stumbled over something large... and black..."

"Fluffy," whispered Harry, Ron, and Hermione at once.

"It was at this point that we deduced where we were and got the bloody hell out of there," George explained more. "But, since we know that Fluffy has been assigned to guarding that trapdoor, we figured he's guarding something big, and Fred and I want to get our hands on it."

"So, what are we waiting for?" said Ron excitedly. "Let's go!"

The five of them opened the door and slipped in, and while Fred magically produced music from his wand, Hermione did an especially powerful Wingardium Leviosa spell that whisked Fluffy into the air. Ron opened the trapdoor and everyone but Fred piled in, who stopped the music. Immediately, Fluffy woke up and dropped over the trapdoor, slamming it shut. Fred backed up, away from Fluffy whose three mouths opened up and unexpectedly shot flame out. Fred screamed, used Alohomora on the door and ran out. Fluffy, eager for a chase, strained so hard against his chains that they snapped, and Fluffy barreled through the door after Fred, shooting flames all the way.

Meanwhile, below, the four remaining Gryffindors listened to Fred's fading screams. "What a baby," George said.

"Okay, Fluffy's down, bring on the Devil's Snare!" shouted Ron. He then realized thatthere was no Devil's Snare. In fact, there weren't any of the previous challenges that had been here in first year. Instead there was just a hallway, well-lit with torches. "What the hell?" he wondered.

The four of them walked for what seemed like forever until they came to a big, wooden door with a big brass handle. "Alohomora," said George, almost casually. The door swung open to reveal the room where the Mirror of Erised used to be. "Harry, you were able to use it last time," he said. "Why don't you try another crack at it?"

Harry walked up to the mirror and looked into its depths, a swirling vortex of black, and words started chanting inside of his head: "Mala exeunt, Imo ab atro, Est humani generis" Harry started chanting as his eyes rolled back into his head. "Harry?" asked Hermione meekly.

Suddenly, Harry's head launched back with a snap and a mysterious substance, black as ink, soared out and formed a cloud, ensnaring Ron, Hermione, and George within its depths. The cloud rushed through the hallway and seeped out the trapdoor, covering everything in its path. Before long, it had covered the whole castle, to the view of an astonished Fred, standing by a dead and bloodied Fluffy. "Blimey," he said. "Hagrid's going to have a fit over Fluffy!"