Thanks to Red-Smiley-Face for beta reading :)
...I'm terrible writing notes, someone help me
Chimeras
Gendry is scared, but then again Gendry is stupid.
The Dungeons, the the real ones below the Slytherin dungeons, have always been prohibited, that was known, but they weren't dangerous. Hogwarts is the safest place on earth, how could something dangerous be there?
"Why you are so interested in going then?" Hot Pie, who is following Arya closely, asks.
"This can't be a good idea." Gendry mutters some steps behind them.
"If you two are too chicken to continue, you better go back to your dorms!" Arya snaps at them, exasperated.
"But he is right, you know," Hot Pie says, "this is a terrible idea."
"Children." Arya sighs.
The three of them had abandoned the Christmas dinner quite early, claiming it was boring and that they were tired. The first claim was absolutely true; the Great hall had been decorated with candles and the table was full of food, but it was abhorrently boring. Maybe it was because Arya was so eager to go to the Dungeons later that night. Sansa had been trying to make Arya stay, but she had finally given up after Arya swore she was going directly to bed.
And she had. Part of the plan was going to bed until everybody left the Great Hall, and then sneaking out again. "It's a distraction." Arya explained when Hot Pie asked. So, when Sansa arrived from the Great Hall after the banquet had been over, she had gone to check on Arya, who had been in her room the whole time.
Now Arya, Hot Pie and Gendry are going to the Dungeons.
"I think this is the door," Arya says, looking at one big wooden door with black metal hinges. Arya takes a deep breath before pushing the door, but it's too heavy. "I need a hand here." she says and Gendry reluctantly gets closer and pushes the door.
"It's stuck." he mutters, causing Arya to frown.
"It's not, it must be a spell." Arya takes out her wand and points it to the lock, "Alohomora."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Jaime is not drunk, obviously. He had barely drunk any wine at the dinner, just a glass or two.
Or eight.
'I simply do not share Tyrion's resistance to alcohol.'
He knew the best option was to go to sleep, but he had received a couple of letters earlier that day that he hadn't opened.
'Probably they're mostly Christmas cards… except Cersei's.'
He takes the pile of parchments that are mostly permanent residents on his desk and throws them unceremoniously in a drawer.
But then, something catches his eye.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"Do you hear that?" Arya asks, feeling a smile forming. They had found some long stairs that went even deeper under the dungeons and Arya had insisted on going down the dark stairwell. They hadn't found anything, but a slight echo could be heard.
"There is nothing!" Gendry says, clearly shaken, but trying to act brave.
"No, no, I hear it…" Hot Pie mutters, trying to be silent so he can hear better, but Gendry groans.
"There is nothing."
"There is someone, or something, singing." Arya says, and Gendry stops and looks at her with a stubborn look on his face.
"Let's go back." he orders.
"No!"
"Arya I'm not asking," Gendry says, turning, knowing that if he leaves now Hot Pie will follow, since he was the one holding the light, "we are going back."
"You craven!" Arya hisses.
"It's just some singing," Hot Pie adds, trying to make his friend stay but just as he says it something changes, "It stopped." Hot Pie and the others hold their breath for a second.
"It stopped," Arya repeats and lets go of the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding, "so… can we continue?"
"Arya I don't like this."
"Oh, you craven." Arya keeps going and when Hot Pie and Gendry realize that she is not coming back they follow. They finally reach a long hallway with torches on the sides, all dark.
"Well, this is creepy." Hot Pie jokes, trying to hide his fear.
Arya rolls her eyes, "Not you too."
The singing starts again.
"Where is it coming from?" Arya asks, more to herself than her friends.
"Arya," Gendry says, sounding more like an adult than he ever had, "I have to put my foot down. We are going back to the dorms, got it?" Arya ignores him. The corridor is so dark that it's impossible to see what is in front of them, so Arya takes the opportunity to use what Syrio had thought her.
'Watch, not only with your eyes, use your ears, use your nose…'
"There must be a door somewhere near," Arya whispers, "the singing… The singing doesn't come from the end of the corridor, but from behind the walls. Quick! Let's find the door."
"Arya," Gendry grabs her arm, and pulls her towards him, "listen to me, this is not fun. We don't know what they have there, and it could be dangerous."
"Hogwarts is the safest place in the w-"
"BUT THERE IS A REASON THIS DUNGEONS ARE PROHIBITED TO THE STUDENTS! STOP BEING SO STUBBORN AND LET'S GO!" Gendry yells. It is the first time Arya has seen him like this. Is the first time Arya has seen him like this, him mad at her.
Arya doesn't know what to say, so she pushes Gendry.
In any normal situation it wouldn't make any effect; maybe it is because Gendry is not expecting it, or because Arya is so mad, but Gendry trips and reaches out to grab an unlighted torch on the wall not to fall.
And in like all the muggle mystery books Arya has read, a hidden door opens.
The three share a surprised look, before Arya becomes determined again, "… We have to go in."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Sleeping was never specifically difficult for Brienne. She would generally tire herself physically throughout the day, and by the end of the night she would comfortably fall on her bed and fall into a deep and repairing sleep. But not today, not after sitting beside Jaime Lannister for hours, listening to him calling for her deep in his cups.
'Or maybe he wasn't so drunk, only looked drunk.' Brienne snorts at the thought and tries to get into a more comfortable position when she hears a loud knock.
'What time is it?' she wonders as she puts on a robe just before opening the door, just wide enough to see who is there.
Jaime Lannister stands there, panting.
"I… ran…" he says, clearly out of breath, "from virtually the… other… side of this… of this fucki-… fucking castle!" he takes a deep breath but before he has the chance of saying anything else, Brienne interrupts him.
"What is it, Lannister?"
"I need your help," he states, as serious as his conditions allows him.
"It's too late, whatever you need come in the morn-" Jaime takes her hand and pulls her outside her room.
"No time, need your help now!"
-.-.-.-.-.
"These are…?" Hot pie doesn't dare to finish the question, and Arya only nods.
"Cells, I didn't know Hogwarts had cells." Arya says, and for one short moment she wishes she had listened to Gendry and had gone back to her room.
But then she saw it. Something moves inside the closest cell and Arya got closer.
Inside there is a snake, a huge snake. As Arya gets closer to the door, the snake does too. Arya feels a firm grip on her arm, which pulls her back.
"What are you doing?" Gendry asks, still looking mad.
"It can't do anything, the bars are too close together, and I bet you it has a charm or two to avoid its escape. I just want to know what it is."
"It's a snake, for Salazar's sake!"
"Why would they have a snake?" Arya laughs as she shakes her arm free. When she is less than an arm's length to the door, the snake starts to rise, letting its face come almost to the same height as Arya. She can hear Hot Pie muttering "that's not normal", but she just ignores him. Just when she is about to take one more step, the snake reacts violently, opening its mouth screeching. Arya jumps back when the Snake bites its own neck, decapitating itself quickly.
Arya retreated another small step, when she saw the neck of the snake shifting. From the tear three more heads appear.
"Hydra!" Arya gasps just before the snake threw itself against the cell bars, setting itself on fire.
Arya screams, feeling Gendry pull her back again, "What is happening?" he asks, panicked, but Arya couldn't answer.
"Was that a spell?" Hot Pie asks, hiding behind Arya and Gendry.
"No," Arya says, "it set itself on fire before touching the bars, the Hydra controls it"
"Like a salamander?" Gendry asks and Arya nods, still in shock over the scare.
Once the Hydra retracted to the back of its cell Arya took a deep breath.
"Well, that one was weird," she mutters, "let's see what other rarities they have here." she said as she freed herself from Gendry's hold.
"You must be kidding me!" Gendry scolds her, "That thing could've killed you."
"But it couldn't even get out of its cell, I'm telling you they are probably charmed."
Arya kept walking, with Gendry and Hot Pie close behind her. She saw other cells but none caught her attention. It wasn't until she heard the singing again that she stops.
"Well," Gendry says, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously, "that's creepy enough for me to want to leave."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sansa woke up with a feeling in her gut. She gets out of her bed, knowing that all her roommates were at their vacations so she didn't have to worry about making too much noise.
She quickly goes to Arya's room, 'I'm just nervous,' she thinks 'maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic.'
Once in front of her sister's door, Sansa takes a deep breath before knocking the door.
No one opens.
She knocks again. "Damn you Arya, open up!" Sansa knocks up more forcefully, but when she doesn't hear anything from the other side of the door, she opens it.
As she expected, the room is empty.
'Oh God, oh god, oh god!' Sansa is in complete shock, where is Arya?
'Oh God, oh god!'
Without a second thought Sansa runs to the common room and in a speed she didn't know she possessed, she crosses it and starts taking the stairs towards the boys rooms.
That was before the steps flatten, of course, creating a slide.
Sansa shrieked as she fell, hitting the ground in a fashion so ungraceful no one would believe it could be her.
Sansa sits on the floor, rubbing her backside when she hears a door opening.
"What the hell is going on?"
Sansa looks up, seeing Sandor walking down the now normal looking steps, and she could see some of the few Slytherin boys that had stayed in the castle peeking as well.
"I... need your help?"
Sandor sighs, and then turns, barking at the younger students, "Go back to your beds! This is no show!" When they were finally alone again, Sandor stretched his arm, giving Sansa a hand so she could stand.
"Arya has disappeared," Sansa explains in a hurry, "please help me find her! She could get us in trouble and…"
"Little Bird," Sandor says, massaging his temple, "no more chirping. It is late, she is probably fine, and I need to sleep...and let's be honest, you do too." Sandor growls.
"But, I have to find Arya!"
"Don't act as if you are doing this for her."
"But... I am— I..."
"If you didn't think that in one way or another, this could fall on you, you wouldn't be worried."
Sansa felt like someone had just knocked the wind out of her
"That... that is not true!"
"Don't lie to me, Little Bird."
"No! Stop! That is not true! I worry about her!"
"You said 'get us in trouble', why would you say that if it wasn't because you think you are getting in trouble?"
Sansa feels a sting in her eyes, and quickly dismisses it as a sign of her tiredness.
Sandor sighs, "Go to bed, Sansa. You need to sleep. Tomorrow you two will talk."
Sandor turned to the stairs, going back to his room when Sansa find her voice back.
"I am not such... such... such a bad person to only be thinking in myself."
Sandor stops, but didn't turn to face her. "I know, Little Bird."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"We only find the singing and then we go back." Arya tells Gendry, she thinking maybe this way he isn't going to be so mad at her, but he doesn't answer.
"How do you know it is not a mermaid?" Hot Pie asks, "I mean their singing attracts sailors."
"Do you see water near here?" Arya relies, stating the obvious.
"They could be in a pool."
"Or it could be something more dangerous." Gendry says.
Arya notices that as they go deeper into the dungeons, the creatures seem more and more weird, and the cells more and more protected. Even without training, Arya could see that the doors have powerful charms placed on them. She even considered turning back and going to her chambers, but, she wouldn't. If she goes back to her chambers that would mean Gendry was right, and she doesn't want to give Gendry the satisfaction.
They finally reach the voice. It is behind a metal door, it has no bars, and it obviously can only be opened with a key.
"Well, that's anticlimactic." Gendry mutters, "We came all the way here to never know what it was. Let's go back, Arya."
"Uh, yeah." Arya answers, deflated. She follows Gendry and Hot Pie closely behind when she hears it.
"Help."
"What…?" Arya stops dead in her tracks.
"Help!"
"There is someone there." Arya whispers, "There is someone there!" Arya ran towards the door, trying to find a way to open it.
"Arya stop!" Gendry tries to pull her but the voice continued, making Arya more and more desperate to open the door.
"Help, help!"
"What are you doing?!" Gendry cries, while Arya keep trying to open the door.
"I have to open it!" Arya states, then a screech sounds, and Arya starts puling one of the hinges.
"Help!"
"Just a little bit more!"
"Gotcha.'" A pair of strong arms holds Arya's middle, quickly separating her from the door.
"Lannister!" Hot Pie gasps, taking a step back, instantly colliding with a very pissed looking Professor Tarth.
Each group stares at the other for a moment, shocked at finding the other there.
"Are we in trouble?" Arya asks, her voice hardly a whisper.
"Not in as much as you had been if any of these monsters got you." was the Auror's answer.
"What?"
"Help!"
"Are you not going to free her?" Arya asks, as the Lannister and Professor Tarth walked them back.
"Free who?" Professor Tarth asks.
"The… the woman, the one that's asking for help."
"Arya," Hot Pie calls, almost softly, "no one asked for help."
"Yes! Someone was! When we almost went back! It called for help!"
Hot Pie looks confused. "It was only the singing".
For some reason, that answer unnerves Arya.
The five of them end up at Professor's Tarth office; since it was so late, they decided not to call Professor Melissandre, or the headmaster.
"What you did tonight was not a simple mischief of some sort, it was very dangerous!" Professor Tarth says, and Arya had never seen her so angry. "You are lucky we arrived before something happened to you!" she sighs, "I will talk to Headmaster Martell and Professor Melissandre, tomorrow morning, to decide an adequate punishment. And I will take 30 points for each one of you."
Gendry and Hot Pie took a sharp breath, but Arya couldn't help herself. "It was not their fault, it was my idea! They were only trying to make sure I was okay and…-" when Professor Tarth looks directly at her, Arya stops, feeling unable to say anything more.
"Then 40 points for you." And turning back to Gendry and Hot Pie says, "I trust you two can walk Miss Stark to her dorm and go back to the kitchens without any more adventures?" Both boys nod, "Good, you are dismissed."
Arya walks behind Gendry and Hot Pie, her head low. Once they were in front of the hidden door to Slytherin she bit her lips without looking at them, "I'm sorry, I really am."
"Just… go to sleep, Arya." was the only thing Gendry said before both her friends left.
-.-.-.-.
Brienne Tarth was a fair woman, or so she thought; still she hated taking points from her own house. 'Another year without the cup' she would say to herself in any other given situation, but not this time.
"Jaime, thank you. I'm glad you stayed here for the holydays." She said, "I don't know what would have happened to the kids if you weren't here to stop them." She felt like she was starting to see Jaime in a different light, a better li-
"Yeah, well, it's my job, you know? But…" Jaime smiles mockingly, "didn't you almost cry when I told you I was staying for the holydays?"
If looks could kill.
-.-.-.-.
A knock on the door woke up Melissandre; it was not really loud, but loud enough to come across in the room, especially now that the night was silent. She took her robe and went to open the door.
In front of her was Brandon Stark, with a serious expression and looking blankly ahead.
"I dreamed of the dungeons … and my sister was there."