A/N: Sorry it's been so long. Had some crazy stuff going on. Graduation, college application, scouting for dorm furniture, packing up. You know, all that good stuff. I'm in a sort of writing mood, though, so expect more updates and stuff. Also, I got my own laptop, so I will be able to upload chapters more frequently. It's so much easier to write the chapters and save them directly to my lappy and then upload them instead of writing them on an old Alphasmart, upload them to my ancient computer, transfer them to my flash drive, put it on a computer with internet, and then upload it =_=

And, I used to upload these chapters to deviantART and stuff, too, but editing chapters for deviantART is a royal pain in my ass. It'll probably just stay on here. I keep hearing about some Ashwinder place, maybe I'll check that out.

Chapter 7: Study

The first thing Severus did upon receiving his information was head to his classroom. For each class, he assigned an essay that was to extend across several roles of parchment about the usefulness of Boomslang skin according to whether it was powdered or made into a paste. He then pre-emptively assigned detention with Filch for a week to his most troublesome students, and handed his classes off to his temporary substitute, who was completely incompetent.

Now he hurried to the third-floor corridor. He did not move out of the way for any students, merely strode in a straight line down the middle of the hall. It was not a problem, as they scattered before they neared him anyway.

He reached the third-floor corridor without any problems and entered silently. He came upon the statue of the oddly hideous witch that had been here since even he attended Hogwarts. He remembered when History of Magic used to be taught on this floor. Now, the corridor was vacant and dank. Cobwebs clung to every corner for life-support. Dust had settled down to make a new home here.

Even his dungeons were nowhere near as filthy.

From somewhere to his right, he could just barely hear what sounded like breathing. Snoring, almost. He glanced in that direction, seeing a door with a hefty wrought-iron handle. It appeared highly unused. He tread quietly over the grimy floors, listening intensely as he neared the door. He had been warned of a three-headed dog. It sounded like it was sleeping.

He tried the handle to find it locked. Of course it was locked. "Alohomora." The door clicked open and Severus was slightly surprised. Something that was so important, so "heavily guarded" was behind a door with no wards, a door that any student could open? Disappointed, he entered the room.

The room was small. No, no. On the contrary, the room was quite large. It was simply occupied by this enormous Cerberus, making it appear quite tiny and cramped.

There was a soft whistling noise; the flute being played reached his ears at about the same time he caught sight of the ruddy half-giant.

"Oh, Profess'r!" Hagrid said as he saw Severus emerge from the doorway. "What might you be doin' here? Did the Headmaster send ya?"

Severus nodded in response. "May I ask what in the world you are doing?" he said flatly.

"Oh, y'see, Fluffy here loves a good tune ev'ry now 'n then. Puts 'im right to sleep! A dog's gotta sleep sometimes, ya know." Hagrid smiled, holding up the flute.

Severus nodded once more, slowly. "And what happens when the music stops?"

"Well, he wakes up, o'course," Hagrid said matter-of-factly.

As if in response to this question, the beast snorted loudly and lifted one of its giant heads. Then the next one lifted, and finally, the beast was glancing around the room with all three heads. Upon seeing the unfamiliar Potions Master, its lips peeled back in a snarl. A low, rumbling growl emitted from its throats, and Hagrid glanced up.

"Are you needin' to go down to th' stone, Profess'r?" he asked, holding up the flute.

"Yes." Without waiting for an answer, he snatched the flute from the giant, but refused to put that instrument to his lips. He set it levitating in the air with the wave of his wand, and let it play itself.

The dog promptly collapsed into sleep once more, causing the floor to rattle. He caught a glimpse of the trap door underneath one of the paws.

"Oh, lemme get that fer ya, Profess'r," Hagrid said, lifting the Cerberus' paw out of the way.

"I could have done it myself, you oaf," Severus sneered, opening the door.

Hagrid couldn't help but chuckle. He had grown used to the Potions Master's crankiness. "Well, down you go!" he said, which was countered with a look of confusion from Severus.

"How am I meant to—"

"Jump, o'course!" Hagrid replied joyfully.

"What?" he asked, but before he could ask for more clarification of what was down there, Hagrid lifted him up and dropped him down the hole.

Severus yelped in surprise, but found to be what he landed on to be somewhat soft. Whatever was under him felt like tense rope, but it was better than solid brick floor.

It was too dark for him to see anything, but it appeared as if the walls were… moving.

"Lumos," he uttered, lighting up the room a bit more.

And as if on cue, the rope-like substance began to wrap around his legs.

Startled, his first instinct was to get the things off of him. "Relashio!" Nothing happened.

But as he studied the walls and floor, he realised what this was. Devil's Snare. Just like Albus had said. He never would have guess that there was really Devil's Snare in the school. The tentacle-like vines were very valuable potion ingredients. He would have to ask for permission to take some when its protection was no longer needed, if ever.

He closed his eyes, leaning back and relaxing. It actually wasn't such an unpleasant experience if you could just relax. It was much like a massage.

And then he fell through.

He landed with a sharp crack on the brick floor below, grimacing and touching his head tenderly where it had collided with it.

There was a soft buzzing noise ahead of him. He wondered what possibly could lie ahead. Surely that noise had nothing to do with chess or flying.

He got to his feet and stiffly made his way into the room ahead.

Keys. Hundreds of winged keys flew about the room. He assumed one of them had to open the door ahead.

For some reason, this room felt very familiar to him. It was tall, very tall, and quite long as well. It was darker than he had remembered, but then again, even when he had been in here before, it had fallen into disuse. Now it was simply filled with keys, but still coated in a thick layer of dust.

This was the study Lucius had shown him back in third year. Lucius had been a seventh year, and he knew all about the history of the school thanks to his family. This study once belonged to two people Lucius had been known to idolise. Salazar Slytherin, and the former Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black. Lucius was related to Phineas, of course, and knew that he was the only Headmaster to have his office other than where it was currently located. Now it appeared that the door they had used to get in when he was a child was completely gone. There was only one door left, and he hadn't recalled it being there before.

Now his eyes fell upon the broomstick. There was no way in hell he would mount that broom and catch whichever key happened to open that door. Never.

It looked like the time to visit his old friend Lucius again. Perhaps not quite so soon after last night's incident, but soon. It was time to learn all of the secrets this room had to offer.

This chapter was pretty much pulled out of nowhere in my head. I've always really loved the look of the key room, in the movies, the first game, and LEGO Harry Potter. I figured, "Wow, a room that big in the castle had to belong to someone important." And when I got to writing the key room, I just randomly pulled it out of my hat that Phineas Black would have wanted to be different. He's such an oddball.