27-10-2013
A/N: Hey guys! I´m really sorry! I posted the wrong document yesterday (26-10-13)! This one is already beta'ed by my awesome beta, Paige. Some scenes are different so if you read this chapter yesterday, I recommend you to read it again today. I´m also sorry for taking so long to update! Sorry.
Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and follow. I seriously appreciate them!
Disclaimer: I don´t own Harry Potter.
It had been almost two months since the classes started and Halloween was just a few days away. Hermione, Draco and Lily were currently climbing up the Great Stairs. They had been placed together for a DADA assignment, which was no surprise as Riddle had already made clear that they were going to stay with their same partners until seventh year, and had an appointment with Professor Riddle to see how their project was doing.
The blond boy let out an irritated sigh as he looked up. How many stairs did they have to climb? Not even his manor had so many stairs! It was the first time they were taking the Great stairs way and he had to say that the dungeons shortcut was much better. The strange trio was almost to the fourth floor, where the secret passage to Professor Riddle´s tower was placed, when the stairs started moving.
"What is happening?" he asked with a startled expression, both of his hands holding the handrail tightly. He was certainly not panicking "Granger, what the hell is happening?"
"The staircases are enchanted, they tend to change directions whenever they please," she answered with calm voice, as if nothing was happening. "It is really annoying though, to get up or down another level to reach your original destination." The stairs shook violently and his grip on the handrail tightened.
"Bloody hell," he heard Lily mutter. She was holding Draco´s robe, feeling that holding the handrail wasn´t safe enough as she looked down. He could understand her fear, they were four floors up. A fall would mean a certain death.
He heard some giggles. Draco looked up and shot a glare at Granger, who was clearly amused at their reactions. Stupid mudblood, he'd like to see her wandering through the dungeons at night, he would be the one laughing then. The stairs shook again and this time Granger had to grab the handrail to keep from falling.
"Wow," she stated with surprise, the stairs kept shaking and shaking as if they wanted them to fall. There was another violent shake and she closed her eyes. Draco looked down and saw Lily sitting on the closest step to him, hugging on of his legs and part of the rail. Now Granger was almost doing the same. What the hell was wrong with the stairs? Draco closed his eyes for a moment, already starting to feel dizzy. Suddenly, the stairs stopped moving. Draco practically dragged both girls towards the closest floor, just in time before the stairs started changing again, this time without the shaking. They sat on the floor for a few seconds, breathing heavily before they calmed down and returned to their feet.
"That´s not usual," Granger commented casually, her breathing now even. "Staircases never change with such frequency and certainly they never shake like that!"
"Next time we'll take the shortcut from the dungeons," Lily stated as she tried to straighten her now wrinkled skirt and making a mental note to never step on those blasted stairs again. "Where are we, by the way?"
Draco Malfoy leaned against the rail and counted the floors, "One, two, three…fuck," he muttered under his breath and turned to face the girls. "We are on the bloody third floor," Draco stated with a groan before starting to massage his temple. "What are we going to do? The stairs are gone!"
Granger lifted her finger and was about to make a suggestion when a very familiar meow interrupted her. The three of them froze and slowly turned around to find the feline figure of Ms Norris sitting on the entrance of the corridor. She meowed again. Lily, Hermione and Draco looked at each other and gave a each other a nod before starting running through the third floor hallway. Torches lit with their presence, giving away their position. They could hear footsteps getting closer and closer but, fortunately, they found a door.
"In here!" Draco whispered to them and tried to open the door. He pulled and pushed with all his strength but it wouldn´t open. "It's locked!" He desperately cried.
Lily took Draco's place and kicked the door once before trying to opening it again. Well, they were doomed, completely doomed. Filch will catch them, his father would kill him (if Snape and Professor Riddle didn't kill them first!) and he was sure they were going to get detention until the next semester if not for the rest of the year. By this time Granger was helping them to pull the door. Filch was coming closer and closer. He noticed his friend taking a few steps backwards and closing her eyes, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Draco was still trying to pull the door, Granger had already given up and was hyperventilating not so far away.
Suddenly, Lily gasped, her eyes wide open "I got it! Move!" Lily instructed his classmates, who stepped a few steps away. She took her wand and pointed at the lock "Alohomora!"
The lock instantly clicked open and the three students entered the room, locking the door behind them. They held their hands against their mouths, forcing themselves to even their breaths. Draco was still trying to regains his composure when he heard Lily gasping. He looked at his cousin and was surprise to see that her soft and aristocratic features were contorted in pure horror. Lily was staring intensely at something in front of them but before he could take a look, he felt Hermione pulling his sleeve. Draco looked at Granger, her face was full of fear and desperation and her eyes were also locked in something in front of them. What the hell? What could be so scary to have Granger and Lily paralyzed in fear? Granger sure, she was a cry-baby like Longbottom, but Lily? She was the most fearless (or stupid, take your pick) person he had ever met. His thoughts were interrupted by a growl. Wait…a growl?
Malfoy slowly lifted his gaze and couldn´t help but to scream at the sight in front of him. There was an enormous dog, an enormous three headed dog. Each head was growling at them, the three pair of eyes were staring with hunger and hate at the three of them. Their teeth were bare, showing the gigantic fangs. Saliva was slowly dripping to the floor. Draco screamed. Granger screamed. Lily screamed and the three headed dog barked. Three seconds later they found themselves running like the devil was following them until they reached the Great stairs again. They ran and ran, climbing down the steps in sets of two and three. The trio didn´t stop until reaching the bottom of the stairs.
"What is a bloody three headed dog doing in the castle?!" ranted Lily as they tried to regulate their breath for the third time in the evening, "What are they playing at? Do they want to get someone killed?" she cried for a second time, crossing her arms under her chest.
Draco nodded energetically in agreement but before he could add something, Hermione interrupted, "Didn´t you see it?" she asked with her irritating matter-of-fact tone. "There was a trap-door under it," Draco and Lily stared at her in confusion. "The dog is guarding something!" she exclaimed and rolled her eyes, something she was getting used to do. "If you excuse me I'm going to have some dinner. Tell Professor Riddle that I´m sorry but I have had enough action for the day." Hermione spun on her heels and entered into the Great Hall, leaving them speechless and unmoving.
Draco and Lily stood there for a few seconds, "Well, what´s wrong with her?" Draco asked as they started walking back to the dungeons, where the entrance of a shortcut to Professor Riddle´s office was located. "Who would look at the floor? I was very busy looking at it´s very lethal heads!"
Lily hummed in agreement every time Draco finished a sentence to show that she was listening but actually, she was very deep in her thoughts. A trap guarded by a three headed dog. What were they hiding?
The third floor incident and the three headed dog were promptly forgotten as the 31 of October arrived. Halloween, a date looked upon to by everyone since the beginning of the year. Mostly because of the special only desserts banquet for the evening. Ice cream, caramel apples, cookies, sweets, lollypops, cake, pudding, chocolate fountains, pies, and more. All handmade with lots of love and effort by the house elves. Halloween was a muggle festivity, everyone knew that. Purebloods were supposed to hate the festivity as it was a 'muggle invasion' and it was destroying the 'true and honorable wizarding festivities', which was also kind of true but how could any student hate a festivity where they could stuff themselves with candy? Even the most stuck up Slytherin salivated at the thought of this year´s banquet. Yes, most of the Slytherins were still annoyed that Samhain was so brutally replaced by Halloween in Hogwarts many years ago, but this year Professor Dumbledore had allowed the performance of the ritual in the Slytherin´s Common Rooms, so the anger was somewhat placated.
Samhain consisted of a ritual of offering things or sacrifices to your ancestors by burning them. You had to say some specific words and to chant in Latin, then the spirits would make some sort of manifestation being the flicker of lights and chilling of the room the most common.
After the banquet most of the Slytherin students would meet up in the Common Room and would take part of the Samhain ritual with the guidance of their Head of House and the DADA Professor. Some were still offended that they had to hide to perform a ritual they had the right to participate in, nevertheless, not everything was possible in life.
Lily Potter had already planned the whole day. First she would go to the library to finish her potions essay, then she would go to the banquet and have a competition with Draco, Crabbe, Nott and Goyle about who could eat more candy before getting sick, and finally she would go with her friends to the Common Room and take part of the Samhain ritual, since today was also the anniversary from her parent´s death she would also pay her respect to them during the ritual. Everything seemed perfect but then the boys had to come and ruin her plans.
Earlier that day Draco and Nott got in a fight with the youngest Weasley and some other Gryffindorks. No one seemed to care enough to move a finger to stop the fight, except Lily who was trying to separate the boys when McGonagall finally arrived. She gave detentions to everyone, even Lily. Currently, the Gryffindorks were cleaning every trophy in the Trophy Room while the poor Snakes had gotten stuck with the second floor girl´s bathroom. The detention lasted until 9pm, which caused them to miss most the banquet. And if it wasn´t enough, they had to clean WITHOUT MAGIC.
"My father will hear about this!" Malfoy raged, throwing his sponge to the bathroom's wall. "I hate detentions and I bloody hate cleaning!" He stomped his foot on the floor and glaring with disgust at the sponge, "This is peasants work!"
"Urgh! I hate this," Lily also threw her scrub brush and fell on her knees. "My back hurts, my arm hurts and we are missing the Halloween banquet!" She also whined, rubbing her abused arm. Who would have thought that scrubbing could be so difficult!?
Nott sighed in exasperation and shook his head. Man, his friends were so spoiled. His parents had taught him to accept his punishments but it was obvious that Lily and Draco had never been punished in their whole lives, or maybe their parents' weren´t as strict as his "Come on, guys!" he said with a smile "We only have one hour left and come on, it´s not so bad!" he flinched at the glares from the pureblood boy and the half-blood girl. "Yeah, it´s bad but whining won´t make it better so grab your stuff and keep working!"
The girl sighed "I hate you, guys," she began with a resigned tone as she crawled back to her scrub brush, "so much" She warned and continued working with a frown "next time you and the Gryffindors can kill each other for all that I care," Lily added, sending a particularly cold glare at the boys. Draco and Nott gulped and sighed. They were so screwed.
The boys and girl kept working in silence for half an hour, knowing that if they started a conversation it would only turn into complaining. They were about to finished scrubbing the floor, having already cleaned the sinks and the walls, thankfully being spared of cleaning the toilets – McGonagall wasn´t so mean.
Out of nowhere a foul smell entered the bathroom.
"That is so disgusting," Lily exclaimed and dropped her scrub brush in order to pinch her nose. "Guys you are so GROSS!"
"Wha- GOOD LORD!" Nott dropped the bucket full of water and lifted his shirt to cover his nose. "Dear Merlin, Draco, you are dying from the inside!"
Draco, who had also sensed the putrid smell and also covered his nose with his shirt. "I can assure you it wasn´t me!" he exclaimed, his face red because of the humiliation. Lily was about to retort something when she was interrupted by Nott.
"Guys?" he addressed his friends with a weak and shaky voice, who snapped their heads to his direction. "I think I know where the smell is coming from," he whispered, not finding the courage to speak louder.
Not less than four feet away was a mountain troll. A giant mountain troll. It was looking at them with a dumb expression. Mountain trolls were big and were incredibly strong but they were slow and could easily be distracted or fooled. Right now it´s gaze was fixed on the three slytherins with an abnormal concentration.
"At the count of three run around his legs," Draco whispered to his friends, his eyes not leaving the troll "One," he felt his friends stiffen and squat a little to gain more impulse "Two," the three were twitching with anticipation "THREE!"
And so they ran. Lily and Nott managed to pass it and ran towards the door, planning to run and don´t stop until reaching their Common Room when a sharp and pained cry made them stop on their heels. It was Draco. He was sitting against the bottom wall after being hit by the troll. He tried to get up but a sharp pain in his ankle made him fall down again with a moan.
"Draco!" Lily screamed, watching with a terrified expression how the troll was approaching her best friend. She turned around and grabbed Nott´s shoulders. "I´ll go and distract him, take Draco and go!" With those words, the girl charged the troll. Nott watched speechlessly as she threw a piece of wood at the troll´s head and caught his attention, and before he could even react, Lily was already mounting the beast´s shoulders. The troll was shaking violently, he didn´t have so much time.
Nott groaned in frustration and threw his hands up in the air, "Lily! URGH!" he panicked for a few moments but gain his composure instants later "Ok, here I go" he muttered to himself. Nott screeched with all his strength to gain courage as he closed his eyes and prepared himself to run past the troll. When Theo opened his eyes, he was already at the other side of the room and couldn´t help but to grin a little in self-satisfaction.
"Theo, hurry!" Draco rushed him with urgency, the blond boy was already standing with help of the wall and was looking worriedly at the girl, whom he thought as a sister "Help me, we have to get a teacher!"
Theo nodded and got closer to Draco, allowing him to put his arm around his neck for support. Nott and Draco limped as fast as they could, successfully passing by the troll and reaching the door. There was a high pitched scream that made the boys to violently turn around with expressions of concern.
"LILY!" they both screamed. Their friend had been finally caught by the troll, who was holding the girl upside down by her leg. Making her skirt to fall towards her face and showing her legs and panties. Nott and Draco stood with their jaws open by the door frame, a slight blush showing in his cheeks.
"DO SOMETHING!" she screamed almost in hysterics. God, if this weren´t a life or death situation she would have actually been embarrassed of being exposed in front of her friends. The troll tried to hit her with his club and she had to make a sit-up to avoid getting hit "HURRY!" she did another sit-up as the club came again.
Draco and Nott stood there, thinking about plan. They didn´t have time to get a teacher so they would have to fight. Both boys chanted all the spells they knew but most of them were useless against the troll´s resistant skin.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Nott exclaimed out of sudden "That´s it! We have to cast it on the club!"
"Ok," Draco said, taking out his wand with a shaky hand, "at the count of three?"
Nott nodded "One," Draco gulped "two," both boys raised their wands "three!"
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" the club stopped in mid-air as it was getting ready to try to hit the girl again. Lily sighed in relief. She was panting heavily, her face covered with sweat. The troll looked up and stated dumbly at his floating cub, a second later the boys cut the spell and the big piece of wood fell on the troll´s head. It instantly dropped Lily, who crawled back to the boys and the three of them watched how the troll wobbled a few times before dropping loudly on the floor.
A few seconds later a very rabid Professor Riddle entered the bathroom with Professor Snape trailing behind him. Both men already had their wands out, ready to stun or kill if necessary. They froze at the sight of the unconscious troll but considerably relaxed since the threat was already taken care of.
"Sweet Circe," Snape muttered under his breath and approached to Draco and Nott, pulling them close to his side. The Head of the Slytherin House immediately started a complete body scan on each of the boys before healing Draco´s ankle with a wave of his wand and giving Nott a well-deserved Calming Draught.
Riddle scanned the room with a frown, his gaze stopping by a very sweaty and hyperventilating girl. "LILIANNE DOREA POTTER" the man roared in anger, waves of uncontrolled magic escaping his body "What-were-you-thinking?!" he questioned the female first year as he walked towards her and helping her up "This was extremely foolish and dangerous! You should have called a teacher instead of facing the beast yourself! Where is your sense of self-preservation, brat? You could have been gravely injured or worse, you could have died and-" Riddle stopped himself the moment he realized the little brat was shaking and her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
Lord Slytherin sighed and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, mentally counting to ten. He squatted in front of her and grabbed her shoulders "Look at me" he commanded in a soft voice, the girl lifted her emerald eyed and locked them with Riddle's hazel ones "People make mistakes because they don´t think before acting," he started "Tonight you all made a mistake. You acted with panic clouding your minds, instead of thinking rationally and evaluating every option. Next time, even if someone is left behind," he added after hearing Draco telling Snape how he splintered his ankle between tears, both boys were clinging to Snape´s robes while the Professor awkwardly patted their backs "I want you to call a teacher. You could have easily told one of the nearby portraits to call a teachers or even shout for help" there was another pause "We will be able to solve the problem efficiently and with less chances of someone getting hurt. Understood?"
Lily nodded and Riddle stood up to his full height again. He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her but instead he found himself being hugged and squeezed by the little monster. Riddle tried to suppress a sigh and after sending Snape a we´ll-never-talk-about-this-look, which the man replied with a nod and a suppressed mocking smile, he wrapped his arms softly around the girl and started patting her back in a constant and reassuring rhythm.
Snape had already calmed Nott with another Calming Draught and was in the process of giving Draco one when Professor McGonagall and Professor Quirrell came bursting into the room.
"Oh my goodness," McGonagall exclaimed with a hand on her chest "Oh, Ms Potter, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Nott!" Quirrell let a soft whimper and sat on one of the toilets, his eyes wide in shock. "Is everyone ok?" The elderly woman asked with preoccupation "No one was injured?"
"No, Minerva" Snape replied "Mr. Malfoy suffered a splintered ankle but it was already taken care of"
Professor McGonagall sighed in relief, her whole body relaxing with the news. The woman stared at the motionless troll with a sharp glare. "Fifteen points to Slytherin, for sheer dumb luck," McGonagall proclaimed with a small smile, which was soon turned into a frown "You were extremely lucky today. Not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. Nevertheless it seems that you were strong enough to do it." The three younglings shared a teary grin.
McGonagall´s face softened a little, "I am very sorry for this inconvenience, as I was the one who gave you this detention," the woman cleared her throat and clapped "Alright? Severus, Tom, kids, I think it´s time to return to our respective dorms. Good night" The woman was about to turn around but stopped herself in order to add something, "Oh! And, boys' do not worry about the troll, Dumbledore will be here in a few minutes." With that said, McGonagall turned around and left the bathroom muttering some nonsense about trolls entering the castle, Quirrell walking close behind her not quite as shocked as before. Professor Riddle and Snape shared a look and a nod, the little teary troublemakers still clinging to their cloaks.
"Come on, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Nott," Snape softly pushing them away and grabbing both boys´ shoulders instead. He nodded at Lily, "and Ms Potter." he finally added "It´s time to return to the Common Room, we are having the banquet there."
It was late at night but Professor Riddle was still awake, reading a book in the comfort of his majestic king sized bed. His eyes were fixed on the book but his thought were focused on the events of the day.
He had been sharing a wonderful banquet with the rest of his colleges as McGonagall entered the Great Hall with a frown, she informed the Headmaster and Snape that Weasley, Finnegan, Nott, Malfoy and Potter had gotten into a fight and now were having detention until 9pm. The Gryffindors, she informed, were cleaning the Trophy room while the Slytherins were cleaning the second floor girl´s bathroom.
The banquet continued soon after that, almost forgetting the mischievous students when this time Quirrell entered running to the Hall, shouting that there was a troll in the Dungeons and promptly fainting in the place. The first thing he did was to fetch Snape and run towards the second floor girl´s bathroom, McGonagall did the same but with Flitwick and rushed towards the Trophy Room for her lions. Meanwhile Dumbledore announced he was going to check you-know-what in you-know-where. The other teachers were left to find the location of the troll and the prefects were instructed to guide every student towards their Common Rooms. Riddle admitted with a groan that he had been worried when they heard the shouts and growls from the second floor and that he had considerably paled at the sight of the unconscious troll and the three shocked first years. He was glad the brat was left uninjured, he had even hugged her in front of Snape and other students. Well, Snape wasn´t any better than he, with two first years clinging to his robes and dirtying them with snot and tears. Of course, McGonagall came a few minutes later and apologized, sending them all to their dorms where there Slytherins finished their banquet and celebrated Samhain.
After the celebrations he had returned to his quarters and got ready for sleep but after the first half an hour of lying in his bed he gave up and started reading a book.
His thoughts were interrupted by some voices outside the office. He heard the door being opened and some light footsteps approaching his bedroom. Riddle got his wand ready and pointed it at the door the exact moment a very disturbed Lily stuck in her head through his door. He lowered his wand.
"Lily?" he raised a questioning eyebrow, even though he knew exactly what the girl was coming for "What are you doing here? It´s past the curfew."
"I-I…eh," she stuttered as she played with one of her curly black locks "I was thinking…"
"Oh, what a surprise," Tom teased her and saw with delight how her face went a very subtle shade of red. "You were thinking…?" he encouraged her to finish the sentence.
"IfIcouldstayherewithyoufrothenight" she rushed her words making them unrecognizable, but he at least got an idea.
The man closed his book and sighed, placing it on his nightstand. Taking in count the earlier events, her request was understandable. The girl had the bad custom to get into someone´s bed in the middle of the night, especially after having suffered a nightmare or after a traumatic event, and fighting a troll certainly counted as a traumatic experience. Since Black wasn´t available during summer (or now, during the school year), he had to deal with the girl. Lord Slytherin moved a little to the left and lifted the covers as he remembered the countless nights he had woken up with the little brat cuddled next to him, stealing his sheets or drooling all over his shoulder.
The girl just stood by the frame of the door "Well," he started "do you want me to send a written invitation?"
With that, Lily almost ran towards the bed and threw herself at the soft bed, cuddling closed to Tom. The man sighed as the girl squirmed like a little worm to get into a comfortable position, choosing his chest as a pillow.
"Good night, Tom," she said and closed her eyes.
"Go to sleep, brat." Tom replied and could feel her smile through his T-Shirt.
Riddle could feel some distress and fear flowing through their link so he allowed himself to lower his Occlumency enough to send her some reassuring emotions. He sensed the girl relax, the distress and fear slowly fading away. In a matter of minutes Lily was fast asleep, her breathing even and calm. Riddle watched her small form rising and falling with each breath until he decided to continue his reading, summoning his book from the nightstand. He opened the book and read two chapters before closing his eyes, deciding to enjoy the pleasurable sensation flowing through their touch. It was so relaxing, and calming… the book fell limply into the mattress.
Professor Riddle fell asleep with a smile.
A/N: f you want to tell me something, make a suggestion, a constructive critic, spot a mistake or simply say that you love this story just review or PM me :D