When dinner time came, Bryt and Ron sat next to each other, but Bryt didn't have much of an appetite. She had her head rested into her hand, poking at her food with a fork. She only looked up when Harry sunk into the seat across from her and Ron.
"...When doya leave?" Bryt asked quietly.
"I don't," Harry said, beginning to fix himself some food.
"What?" Bryt and Ron both straightened up, staring at Harry.
"Professor McGonagall took me to meet the Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood," Harry said, "Apparently, I have a lot of skill because I've been made Seeker on the Gryffindor team."
"You're joking!" Ron exclaimed, staring at Harry with wide eyes, "Seeker? But first years never—you must be the youngest house player in about—"
"—a century," Harry interrupted, sticking a forkful of food into his mouth, "Wood told me."
"That's..." Bryt started, trying to find something to say. Harry was Seeker? It was amazing news, especially since she was positive Harry would be on a train home by now. Ron seemed just as speechless as he stared at Harry with his mouth opened slightly.
"I start training next week," Harry said, "Only don't tell anyone. Wood wants to keep it a secret."
At that moment, Fred and George appeared at the table, grinning.
"Well done," George said, "Wood just told us. We're on the team, too—Beaters."
"I tell you, we're going to win the Quidditch cup for sure this year," Fred grinned, "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry. Wood was practically skipping when he told us."
"Anyway, we've got to go. Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."
"Bet it's the one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."
As soon as the twins were gone, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had taken their place behind Harry.
"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"
"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry replied.
Bryt smirked as Malfoy obviously didn't like that response.
"I can take you on anytime on my own," he said, "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only—no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"
"Of course he has," Ron spoke up for Harry, "I'm his second, who's yours?"
Malfoy looked over his shoulder at Crabbe and Goyle, as if he were comparing the two.
"Crabbe," he said, turning back around, "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."
As Malfoy left, Bryt and Harry both looked at Ron.
"What is a wizard's duel?" Harry asked.
"And what'dja mean yer his second?"
"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," Ron said casually.
"Die?" Bryt echoed, "And you got him into this?"
"People only die in proper duels," Ron continued quickly, "You know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."
"You didn' give him a chance to," Bryt commented.
"What if I wave my want and nothing happens?" Harry asked before Ron could reply to Bryt.
"Then I'll slug him for ya," Bryt said simply, then when Ron and Harry gave her a strange look she continued, "You two don' seriously think I'm gonna stay behind, do ya? I'm comin'."
"Excuse me."
Bryt looked up with Ron and Harry to see Hermione had come over.
"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron groaned, then yelped as Bryt slammed her foot down on his under the table.
"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying—"
"Bet you could," Ron muttered. Bryt tried to stomp on his foot again, but Ron had moved his foot out of the way. Bryt chose to elbow him hard in the side instead.
"—and you mustn't go wondering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."
"And it's really non of your business," Harry said.
"Good-bye," Ron added.
"That was really rude, guys," Bryt glared at her friends as Hermione spun around and left.
"It's her own fault," Ron said, "She shouldn't stick her nose into our business. I'll never understand what you see in her, Bryt."
"If you jus' give her a chance," Bryt snapped, "I told ya, Hermione's a really great girl! Now, excuse me, I'm gonna go apologize for yer rudeness."
Bryt stood up before Harry and Ron could reply and left the Great Hall to look for Hermione. It was almost an hour before she finally found in their dormitory, writing on a piece of parchment.
"Letter?" Bryt asked as she sat on her own bed, looking at Hermione.
Hermione just gave a small nod and Bryt sighed, guessing Hermione was blaming Bryt as well for Harry and Ron.
"Listen, 'mione," Bryt said, "What Ron and Harry said was really rude, I'm sorry. I've been tryin' to get them to get to know you, but boys're stubborn and—"
"You have to talk them out of it," Hermione cut Bryt off, looking up at her.
"Huh?"
"The duel tonight, you have to talk them out of it," Hermione said, "You're going to get into so much trouble! You could lose Gryffindor a lot of house points!"
"Hermione..." Bryt started, "I ain't gonna be able to talk those two out of goin', and, truthfully, I don' want to. We've got a chance to really put Malfoy into his place, to shut him up."
"Malfoy could very easily be lying," Hermione said, "He could be just trying to lure Harry to the trophy room to get him into trouble."
Bryt bit her lower lip. She knew Hermione was right, and she wondered why she hadn't thought of it herself.
"And if he's not lying," Bryt kept up anyway, "And Harry doesn' show, Malfoy'll jus' have somethin' else to gloat over."
Hermione didn't give up. She continued to lecture Bryt until Parvati and Lavender came up for bed. Bryt pretended to go to sleep herself and waited until she was sure everyone else was asleep before slipping out of her bed and pulling on her fiery-orange house coat and glancing at Hermione's bed. She gave a sigh of relief seeing Hermione seemed to be asleep as well.
Bryt crept down the spiral stairway and across the common room, sitting on the bottom curve of the opening to the corridors and watched the boy's dormitory stairway. At one point, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked around, she couldn't see anything.
Soon, Ron and Harry appeared at the bottom of the boy's stairway, both in their bathrobes. Bryt stood up as they came came over.
"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."
Bryt spun around as a lamp came on. Hermione was in a nearby armchair in her pink bathrobe and she was frowning. Bryt blinked, wondering when Hermione could have crept down without her knowing.
"You!" Ron snapped, "Go back to bed!"
"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped back, "Percy—he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."
"Hermione, just go back to bed," Bryt said, sighing. She was tired of arguing with Hermione.
"Bryt, Ron, come on," Harry spoke up, heading through the hole into the corridor.
Bryt turned from Hermione and followed Ron out and Hermione was right behind, obviously still far from done.
"Don't you care about Gryffindor? Do you only care about yourselves? I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."
"Jus' go to bed, Hermione!" Bryt hissed, "We'll be careful!"
"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so—"
Hermione cut off and Bryt looked over her shoulder to see her friend staring at the empty canvass of the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Now what am I going to do?" Hermione asked in a shrill voice.
"That's your problem," Ron said, "We've got to go, we're going to be late."
"We'll be back soon, 'mione," Bryt said before heading off after Harry and Ron.
"I'm coming with you," Hermione said, running up to them at the end of the corridor.
"You are not."
"She's comin'," Bryt hissed, "We can't leave her alone out here."
"Shut up," Harry snapped, "I heard something."
Bryt turned to the snuffling sound nearby.
"Mrs. Norris?" Ron whispered.
Bryt blinked as she looked at the ground.
"Nope, Neville," she said.
Indeed, Neville was curled up, fast asleep on the floor. Bryt crept nearer and knelt down, shaking the boy lightly and he jerked awake.
"Thank goodness you found me!" Neville squeaked, "I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."
"Shhh," Bryt hissed, "Password doesn' matter. Fat Lady's out right now."
Neville groaned and Bryt helped him to his feet.
"How's yer arm?" she asked.
"Fine," Neville said, holding it up, "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."
"Good," Harry said, "Well, look, Neville. We've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later—"
"Don't leave me!" Neville said, "I don't want to say here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."
"Okay, okay, you can come," Bryt grinned reassuringly, but Ron was glaring between Neville and Hermione.
"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned the Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and use it on you."
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when Harry hushed her before leading the group on through the hallway. Bryt followed along the group, looking around and jumping at every sound, expecting Filch or Mrs. Norris to be around any corner. She kept thinking about what Hermione had said as well. Malfoy probably wouldn't show, he was just trying to get Harry in trouble...
Not surprising, Malfoy and Crabbe were nowhere in sight when the group of Gryffindors reached the trophy room. Ron insisted that Malfoy was just late, so Bryt began looking over the different trophies as they waited several minutes.
"He should be here by now," Bryt whispered, looking at her watch.
"Maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered back.
"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."
Bryt froze as she stared at the end of the hall. That was Filch's voice...and he had to be talking to Mrs. Norris. Ron suddenly grabbed Bryt's arm and pulled her off down the other way. Bryt turned to see the others were further ahead and she quickened her pace. They had just gotten hidden around the corner when they could hear Filch in the trophy room.
"They're in here somewhere," Filch said, "Probably hiding."
Harry motioned to the others before creeping off down the hallway. Once again, Ron had to give Bryt a yank for her to begin moving, but once she had started, she was quickening her pace more and more along the suits of armor. Neville gave a yelp behind Bryt and Ron and the two were suddenly knocked forward into a suit of armor, sending a loud crash echoing through the castle.
"RUN!" Harry yelled.
Bryt, Ron, and Neville scrambled to their feet and took off after Harry and Hermione. Harry was in the lead of the group as they ran through one corridor after another, not daring to stop, no matter how out of breath they were becoming. Harry tore through a tapestry, the others right behind, and straight through a secret passage to the Charms corridor, far away from the trophy room. Bryt leaned against the wall, panting heavily and feeling as if her heart was pounding in her throat, making it hard to swallow.
"I think we lost him," Harry panted, wiping sweat from his forehead as he leaned against a wall himself.
"I—told—you," Hermione gasped, clutching at her chest, "I—told—you."
"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," Ron said, "Quickly as possible."
"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said, looking at Harry, "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you—Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."
"This isn' the time to talk about it. Like Ron said, we needta get to the common room," Bryt hissed back.
"Let's go," Harry spoke up, starting off and the others followed.
They barely made it a few steps when Peeves suddenly came flying from a room. He gave a delighted squeal when he noticed the five first years.
"Shut up, Peeves—please—you'll get us thrown out," Harry said.
"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties?" Peeves cackled, "Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."
"If you don' tell anyone, we won'!" Bryt whispered, "Please, Peeves!"
"Should tell Filch, I should," Peeves gave a fake saintly voice, "It's for your own good, you know."
"Get out of the way," Ron snapped, swinging at Peeves.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves screeched, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
All five of the first years took off at the same time, straight to the end of the corridor where they were met by a locked door.
"Great! Locked!" Bryt snapped, banging her shoulder constantly into the door, as if that would help.
Footsteps far behind echoed down the hall. Filch was coming.
"Oh, move over," Hermione hissed, yanking Harry's wand from his hand and pointing it at the lock, "Alohomora!"
The door swung open and everyone rushed inside, shutting the door behind them. Bryt looked around and froze, feeling as if she had been dunked in ice water as she stared in front of her. All sounds around her seemed to disappear as she found herself staring at a large black dog as high as the ceiling...and with three heads. Bryt opened her mouth to try and speak, but the only thing that came was a low squeak. The heads began growling and Bryt felt numb. She wanted to say something, or even to scream, but nothing would come out.
The others seemed to notice the giant dog, too, because the door suddenly opened behind them and Bryt felt someone grab her arm and pull her out. Regaining her ability to move, Bryt took off, the others right with her. As she ran, she realized what room they had been in...the forbidden corridor. And now she knew why it was forbidden.
All five of them didn't stop until they had reached the Fat Lady, who had returned to her portrait.
"Where on earth have you been?" she asked, seeing the group out of breath.
"Never mind that—pig snout, pig snout!" Harry gasped out.
The portrait swung open and they all piled in, collapsing into chairs. Bryt squeezed her eyes shut as she leaned forward in her chair, trying to catch her breath. No one spoke for several minutes and all Bryt could think about was the giant dog and how close it came to attacking the students.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron was the first to dare speaking, "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."
Bryt looked up at that and noticed Hermione looked irritated.
"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped, "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"I really don' care," Bryt said, "All I was worried about were the three heads thinkin' about eatin' us."
Hermione flushed. "It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something," she said, standing up and glaring at the group, "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed—or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Ron glared and Bryt watched, annoyed, as Hermione disappeared up the stairway to the girl's dormitories.
"No we don't mind," Ron said, and Bryt turned back to him, "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"
"I'm goin' to bed, too," Bryt said, standing up, "Maybe I can calm Hermione down. G'night."
Bryt turned from her friends and Neville and headed up the stairway herself. When she got to her room, she noticed Hermione was already in bed. Sighing, Bryt decided she would talk to Hermione in the morning and crawled into her own bed, trying to sleep, though she was finding it difficult after what had happened that night.
