Author's Note: Thanks for reviewer's unwavering support! I'm very busy these days, hence the lack of update in my fictions. I'm not sure if this chapter is enough but oh well, it's still a chapter (albit an uber short one, take this as an interlude then). Not much happening, but I shall try my best and update faster! (Though it's unlikely .) Enjoy!

Chapter 3 – Second Day: Bored

When Harry, Ron and Hermione stepped out of the portrait hole on their way to breakfast in the Great Hall, they saw Fred and George tied up in what looks to be near-invisible strings in the most ridiculous positions. Fred had fallen down onto the ground, arms were tied to his torso while strings wrapped around his right ankle, lifting it up. George was in a much more uncomfortable position. Standing on one leg, his other leg was lifted while his arms were spread, held in position by strings. Neither of the boys can reach their wands to free themselves.

"Don't just stand there!" Fred cried from the ground.

"Get us free! We've been here all night!"

"Percy, the git – "

"Was here before but – "

"He wouldn't untie us, saying that – "

"We got what we deserved and – "

"That we should hang around a bit longer – "

"To teach us a lesson!"

"How did you end up like that?" Harry asked as he and Ron used their wands to slice through the strings. Upon closer inspection, he found out that they were actually wires.

"We were just going to get some food from the kitchens last night," George started, loosening his stiff muscles.

"The minute we step out into the corridor, we were tied up like this." Fred finished, standing up while groaning.

"Well, didn't you hear Mr. Uchiha last night? He must've set traps here after he left." Hermione said.

Last night after the feast, one of the guards had come into the common room. Harry remembered him saying that no one is allowed out after curfew, and if anyone dared to set foot outside, they would be caught immediately. He had left behind a piece of paper with a strange swirl of pattern on it to be ripped in case of emergency, and someone will come.

"We thought he was bluffing." George said.

"Apparently not." Harry said, grinning.

"That guy was kinda creepy, with the red eyes and all…" Fred mused.

The group of friends went down to breakfast. As they entered the Great Hall, the first thing they saw was Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with a very funny story. As they passed, Malfoy did a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit and there was a roar of laughter.

"Ignore him," said Hermione, who was right behind Harry. "Just ignore him, it's not worth it…"

"Hey, Potter!" shrieked Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl with a face like a pug. "Potter! The Dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooo!"

Harry dropped into a seat at the Gryffindor table, getting his timetable and glared at it.

"The little git," George said calmly as he sat down next to the depressed boy. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

"Nearly wet himself," said Fred, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy. He then noticed something.

"Is it just me, or does Malfoy looked a bit singed?"

The group squinted. Indeed, Malfoy's blond hair looked frizzed, unlike his normally slick appearance. The edges of his robes looked burnt, threads hung from the edges of his clothes…

"Mou, I told him not to use explosives…"

The group jumped. They turned around to see an annoyed pink haired girl staring at Malfoy with her arms crossed. They were even more startled to see the blonde with the weird cloak seemingly materialized from nowhere.

"You said not to blow the students up, not to not use explosives, yeah."

"It's the same thing." Whirling around, the girl glared.

"No it isn't, yeah. See, that kid's fine. He did wet his pants when one of my spiders exploded though." Snickering, the blonde waved cheerfully at Malfoy, who paled and hurriedly walked out the Hall, his entourage following hastily.

"Ha! I was right!" Hermione said triumphantly at Ron, who had flinched at the word 'spiders'.

"Right about what?" The red head blinked owlishly.

"He's a he!"

Ron scowled. He turned to the still bickering guards.

"Hey, are you a guy or a girl?"

Hermione slapped her forehead in exasperation at Ron's lack of tact. Harry looked away stifling a chuckle while the twins hastily said their goodbyes. The blonde looked ready to kill.

"I'm a guy, yeah!" He said furiously.

"Oh," Ron deflated and muttered. "Should've make yourself look more like a guy then…"

"Why you little…!"

"I'll take it from here Deidara." The girl said, pushing the explosive expert (who looks as if he's going to blow up himself) towards the Great Hall's entrance. Deidara huffed and stalked out the hall. Sakura turned her attention back to the teens in front of her, who had finished examining their timetables. As they bickered about something, a giant of a man walked in. Sakura recognized him from the feast last night. She was still amazed by his larger than normal size though.

"All righ'?" the man said eagerly to Sakura's charges, pausing on the way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everythin' ready … hope it's OK … me, a teacher … hones'ly …"

He grinned broadly at them and headed off to the staff table, swinging the polecat in his hand. Sakura watched with morbid fascination, eyeing the immobile carcass being swung dangerously close to student's heads.

"Wonder what he's been getting ready?" said Ron, a note of anxiety in his voice.

The Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lesson. Ron checked his timetable.

"We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there…"

Soon the trio finished their breakfast, heading towards the doors of the Hall, Sakura trailing behind them. She rolled her eyes. Pft. They have Divination as a subject?


Kisame wandered the corridors of the castle in boredom, his trusty sword slung across his broad shoulders. Students in black robes hurried to their classes, shooting fearful glances at him as they passed. Kisame grinned, showing his unnaturally sharp teeth at a group of first years. They squeaked and ran. Kisame chuckled. Oh how he loved to scare these kids.

He was bored. The traps that were set outside of the Ravenclaw's portrait remained inactivated, disappointing the shark man. He had heard there were two people caught in Itachi's side and one on Deidara's side. Man, he just had to pick the goody-goody house by mistake. The traps the four shinobis had set up were timed. It was set right after curfew and deactivated when breakfast time came, so they need set up new traps each night.

Scratching his chin, the blue-skinned man rounded a corner, passing through a ghost. The feeling was unpleasant, but it didn't particularly bother the Akatsuki member.

Rounding another corner, he spotted something pink.

'Sakura.' Kisame thought. Who else in the entire castle have pink hair?

He saw the kunoichi and her charges leaning into something, then sprinting off to follow the tiny figure in the painting as it moved on to the next one. Shrugging, Kisame dismissed them and continued onwards. The corridors were silent now, with the students being in classes. He debated on whether if he should go back to the common room or walking around the castle, being bored.

Yawning, the shark man scratched his head.

'Maybe I'll go take a nap…'

Kisame turned, missing the figure that slipped past behind him and up the stairs after Sakura and her charges, so intent on his quest for sleep.

Deidara followed Sakura and her group. He rolled his eyes as Kisame let out another yawn before rounding the corner and towards what undoubtedly was his bed.

'Lazy ass…' The bomber thought as he continued up the spiralling tower. He was bored, there's nothing to do in the godforsaken castle. Itachi was patrolling outside and had all but thrown Deidara back in to 'guard the students'. Tch, the Uchiha just wanted to irritate the ex-Iwa Nin, knowing how he loved to fly on his clay bird outside. Deidara doesn't feel much like exploring, and wouldn't want to step foot inside the library, so he opted to follow the cherry blossom instead.

'They have got to be having more fun than I am.' Deidara thought sourly.

"Halt, villain!" A voice all but squeaked beside the Akatsuki, sufficiently startling him. The clanks of armour soon followed the voice, as if someone was jumping up and down in them. Incidentally, someone is – Sir Cadogan, in fact. Deidara squinted at the painting, leaning close, but quickly backed off when the miniscule knight started yelling while waving his equally miniscule sword.

"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!" The little knight shouted, echoing his words from five minutes ago. "What villain are you that trespass upon my private lands?"

Deidara's patience was wearing thin as the knight continued to rant and rave while waving his too-large sword about. Gritting his teeth, Deidara glowered at Sir Cadogan before turning resolutely away from the painting and bounded up the stairs of the Northern Tower. He didn't think their host will think kindly of them with a section of the wall missing. He quickly made his way up and was soon standing beneath the open trapdoor and stopped.

Deidara sneezed.

He scowled. Who on earth had the right mind to fill an entire room with perfume that had the effect of miasma?

Grabbing a glob of clay, he chewed it with his hand before quickly moulding it into a small sparrow-like bird. He etched a message onto its back and sent it up to the Divination room. He waited a moment. He heard gasps and exclamations. Someone tried to open the window. Deidara snorted – probably letting his bird out as an excuse to get some fresh air. He sneezed again. Not that he blamed them.


Sakura snatched the clay bird out of the air irritably and hid it behind her back.

"Hey, where'd the sparrow go?" Ron asked.

"Aw, I want to pet it!" Lavender sighed in disappointment.

"Now, now children, please, don't loose focus, lest your Inner Eye become clouded." Professor Trelawney's voice floated around the room.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Really, the professor was just a big phony. Hermione seemed to think so too. The mousy haired girl huffed in irritation, her hand tapping sharply against the open pages of her Divination book. Sakura glance at the bird without anyone noticing. Her eyebrow twitched.

'I'm bored, play with me, yeah.'

Underneath the short message, a picture of a smiley faced chibi-Deidara was also etched in. Her brow twitched again and crushed the bird, having checked beforehand to see if it's one of Deidara's explosives. She sighed and slinked towards the trapdoor opening, waving aside Harry's questioning glance.

Deidara grinned when a pair of booted legs started down the stairs, slowly revealing the irritated Sakura. He was about to say something when Sakura beat him to it.

"What the hell's your problem?" Sakura demanded – a fist on her hip.

"I was bored, yeah." Deidara pouted.

The medic rolled her eyes.

"Go patrol the outside then."

"Itachi kicked me back in."

"The library?"

"Are you kidding me, un?"

"Explore?"

"Don't feel like it."

"Stay with a class?"

"Boring."

Sakura massaged her throbbing temples.

"What do you want me to do about your 'boredom' then?"

"Play with me, un!" Deidara replied childishly. Funny, he hadn't had this much fun in ages. When he was alive, Sasori-danna doesn't take too kindly of being a participant in banter, saying it wastes time when he could be working on his puppets. Tobi was too annoying. Itachi will just glare at him (probably let him suffer for 72 hours in his genjutsu too). Kisame's alright, but they don't have a lot of stuff in common. Hidan will just curse at him, and Kakuzu will ignore him while counting his money. Zetsu will probably eat him…

Deidara shook himself out of his musings when he realized Sakura had left him and retreated back up the stairs. Pouting, Deidara sat down to wait. No way was he going up there into that miasma-filled hell hole.