Ron and John saw Harry again at dinnertime in the Great Hall, and Clara, sitting near Amy, had noticed that John's hair was back to its usual length, though it was the same shade of brown it had been at the Quidditch field. Ron was the first to notice Harry, and immediately asked him what McGonagall wanted with him.
"Well, she took Oliver Wood out of Flitwick's Charms class, and she said she'd found him a Seeker. Wood was really happy, and began setting up a schedule for training me," explained Harry quietly. John, drinking apple juice from his goblet, nearly choked when Harry explained, and Ron simply had a piece of steak-and-kidney pie halfway to his mouth.
"Seeker?" whispered John, shocked. "You're eleven! You're probably the youngest House Seeker in a century! Maybe even more!" Harry nodded. "That's what Wood said. I'm to start training next week, but please keep it a secret." John and Ron looked at Harry, then one another, and silently crossed their hearts.
"The twins are entering the Great Hall," said John to the rest of the First Years that were nearby, and the moment the two redheaded pranksters entered the hall, all the school staff gazed at them, not blinking, terrified of whether they had any new ideas. When they stopped at Harry, they resumed their conversations with one another.
"Hello, new Seeker, well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team as well-Beaters. Fred added, "We're going to win the Quidditch Cup for sure this year. We haven't since our dear brother Charlie left. You'd better be good, Harry. When Wood told us, he was pretty much skipping with delight."
"Anyways, we've got to go," they said together. "Lee Jordan reckons that he's found a new secret passageway." And together they ran off, the Professors watching them leave with dread.
"Well, that was informative," said Harry, but he couldn't say more as John reached over and tapped his shoulder, saying, "The gorilla-trainer has brought his apes."
The gorilla trainer was an unhappy Malfoy, and the gorillas were his two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy got rid of the unhappy look, quickly replacing it with confidence, and walked up to the three boys, though his eyes told John that he was still scared of him.
"You having a last meal, Potter? I thought that you'd be home with the Muggles by now," he said. "You seem a lot braver now with both your feet on the ground and your two friends with you," replied Harry coolly.
"I could take you on any time on my own without help, but could you? The reason you caught that Remembrall in the first place is because Lungbarrow here hit me with a spell," said Malfoy. A few seconds' pause followed, then "Tonight, in the trophy room, you and me, wizards' duel, wands only-no contact." John looked at Ron.
"I'll be Harry's second," said the young Weasley, "and who will yours be?"
Malfoy turned around, sizing up Crabbe and Goyle. He settled on Crabbe. "I think midnight will be a good enough time, don't you?" he said. Harry nodded weakly, Ron a bit harder. "Good," said Malfoy, "see you there." And he and his goons then slithered away.
"Excuse me boys, while I take care of a little something," said John anxiously, rising from his seat and walking quickly around the table, grabbing Clara's hand, and practically dragging her out of the Great Hall, though nobody noticed.
"Clara, I need you," started John. Clara looked at him, confused. "Oh…kay," she said slowly, but John managed to realise his mistake in not properly explaining to him.
"Listen, I have reason to believe that Malfoy is setting up Harry and Ron, alright?"
Clara's eyes widened slightly. She had overheard the prat talking about a 'wizard's duel', but she hadn't really suspected that it was a trap.
"Hermione's going to try and talk them out of it and fail, right?" asked Clara rhetorically. John nodded, a half-hearted smirk on his face. "Yep, so what we'll do tonight is try and distract Filch and his damn cat, so that it'll take longer for him to reach Harry and Ron, and thus giving them some time to escape.
"That….is a very poorly thought out plan that almost certainly will not work," said Clara in a matter-of-fact tone. John nodded, saying "I agree. Which is why I love it."
At 10.30pm, at the exact same moment, John and Clara both got out of bed, got dressed in suitable clothes (for her, a black leather jacket, blouse and black jeans with black knee-high socks and Mary-Janes. For him, a light blue dress shirt with dark blue bowtie, the uniform trousers, and a dark green checked Harris Tweed blazer with slip-on paddock boots) and snuck into the common-room.
"This will work, right?" she asked him quietly, not failing to notice his hair was now jet-black. "Better than the prank on the Slytherins," he said in a quieter voice, smiling. She rolled her eyes. "How original that prank was, too. Having live African rock pythons come out of all the pies."
"Shush!" he said quietly, placing a finger to her lips. "Good. Remember, the password's 'pig snout' now." Clara nodded and together, the two students snuck out of the common-room, and noticed (to their delight) that the Fat Lady was still there.
Then they heard a slight whimpering noise, barely audible. They turned and saw it was Neville, his knees at his chest. "Neville?" Clara whisper-shouted. Neville looked up at the two. "I've been here for hours. I've forgotten the password, and the Bloody Baron's been around once already."
"It's 'pig snout'. Repeat it in your head, it always helps for me," said John, smiling. Neville smiled weakly, got up, and said to the Fat Lady, "Pig snout". She opened, and Neville walked in, giving John and Clara a thumbs-up. They returned the gesture.
"You ready to begin, Clara Oswin Oswald?" John asked her, smiling. "As ready as I'll ever be," she replied with a smirk, and together they went off and began exploring the school halls and corridors, making sure to clap quickly every so often before quickly running off and hiding from Filch and Mrs. Norris.
The first time that Filch nearly saw them was near the Ravenclaw Tower at around five to eleven, when John accidentally tripped and knocked over a suit of armour. They only just managed to escape his and Mrs. Norris's sights.
The second time, they were caught, but John managed to convince him they were lost, and had spent the past three hours looking for the Gryffindor Tower. He believed them, and merely let them off with a warning.
Eventually, after more than an hour of running around getting Filch's attention, they were at the trophy room, and Filch was scouring the Great Hall looking for them. Clara was giggling silently, and John was panting slightly, chuckling.
"That," said Clara, having regained her composure, "was probably one of the most fun nights I've ever had in my life! You do this often?" John grinned and straightened his bowtie. "Oh, all the time, Clara Oswin Oswald, all the time. Me and Amy and Rory would always sneak out of the house at night and go exploring the ruined castle, or sometimes the forest." Clara smiled. She was impressed by him, and she had had so much fun! She wanted to do this again sometime, and she knew that he knew.
"What time is it, anyway?" he asked her, his face now confused and slightly scared. "It is now," started Clara as she took out her watch, "12.01am."
"Okay, Harry and Ron are bound to be inside," said John, as he took out his wand. He slowly opened the door, hearing it creak, then he and Clara entered the room. They gasped at all the items guarded behind the crystal trophy-cases, the shields, the statues, they were all so magnificent.
They then both stood still and silent for a minute, managing to pick up the sound of three people breathing in the room. They walked slowly towards the halfway point of the room, and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione, each dressed in their pyjamas and a dressing-gown.
"Pink's a bit too cliché, Hermione," said John. Hermione looked at her dressing-gown and rolled her eyes, asking, "And what are you two doing here?" Clara smiled and began explaining.
"Well, we figured that Malfoy set you up, so we've spent the past hour having Filch chase us, so that, by the time he does get here, which would most likely be in…." She paused to look at her watch. "In about twenty minutes, we'll be long gone."
"Oh…..kay," said John awkwardly. Silence followed, before John said quickly and worriedly, "We'd better get out of here….I can hear Filch climbing up the nearest staircase as we speak." The other four quickly glanced at the door where they had all come in, pupils wide in horror, and quickly ran to the door at the opposite end of the room, opening the door and speeding through.
"I know where to go, come on!" said John, running to where Harry was (at the front), and leading the students into a hidden passageway that came out near the Charms classroom.
"Harry, Ron," said Clara, "you do know that Malfoy tipped off the git, right?" Ron and Harry looked at her and nodded. They were panting. "I'm feeling a bit tired now," said Ron, opening his mouth to yawn, but John quickly covered his (John's) mouth with a finger.
Luckily, Ron managed to yawn silently. Hermione sighed, and said, "Let's go, come on." The quintet then walked more slowly this time, in case Filch could hear them, but they heard a doorknob rattle and something shoot out of the Charms classroom. It was Peeves, and Clara managed to catch sight of him.
"Hide, quickly," she said in a quiet voice. The others turned around and did so. The Poltergeist looked around for a while, but found nothing, before leaving for the Potions classroom. The First Years sighed, relieved. But then, he shouted "STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED IN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" and as soon as they heard Filch's footsteps approaching, and they took off again.
This time, they ran right to the end of a different corridor, which had a door that was locked. "He's getting closer," whispered Ron, scared. Hermione quickly took Harry's wand and placed it at the door, saying "Alohomora!", causing the door to unlock and open, allowing the five students to swiftly enter.
"Clara, can you tell me why you're grabbing my dressing-gown?" asked Harry as he turned around to see why she was doing so.
He wished he hadn't.
Right in front of them, a massive three-headed dog, which by the looks of it, appeared to have been taken by surprise by their sudden entrance, with all six of its creamy-coloured eyes looking at them. Now, however, it was getting over the initial surprise and growling.
"We're in the forbidden corridor," said John, panting lightly, his skin paler, out of fear. "We're in the forbidden corridor on the Third Floor."
Harry's pupils widened in horror. He grabbed for the doorknob-he would pick Filch over death by three-headed dog any day. The quintet fell backwards, Harry and Clara slamming the door shut together, and then everyone ran as fast as they could away from the door. Filch was gone, probably looking for them in some other part of the school, but they didn't care-they just wanted to place as much space between them and that creature as possible. Eventually, they reached the Seventh Floor, outside the Gryffindor entrance. The Fat Lady was there too, clearly having returned from a visit to another painting.
"Where have you lot been?" she asked, looking at their flush, panting faces. "Never mind that-Pig snout, pig snout," puffed John. The portrait opened and they rushed in and fell on the armchairs and sofa, not speaking for several minutes. Indeed, it was a while before anyone spoke.
"What do the teachers think that they're doing, keeping that thing in there? If any dog needs some exercise, it's that one," said Ron finally, in a rather poor attempt at easing any tension. John was the second to say something, as he scrambled to his feet, out of his thinking pose.
"Did anyone happen to look at the floor where that thing was standing?" he asked, pointing at his feet to emphasise his point. Harry shook his head, replying "No, John. I was too busying looking at his heads."
Hermione sighed in an annoyed manner. "Not its feet, but where it was standing. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's clearly guarding something."
John smiled, and looked at Hermione. "You're right Hermione, you're right! The real mystery however, is what it is guarding. But I can always sleep on it. Goodnight." With that, he quickly but quietly ran up to the dormitory, taking his jacket off whilst doing so.
Hermione then stood up and glared at the remaining two boys. "We could have been killed, or worse, expelled. I hope you're happy with yourselves. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." Clara followed.
John and Hermione had given Harry something to think about. "There's no safer place than Gringotts, except maybe Hogwarts," Hagrid had said on his birthday to him when they had gotten the money to buy Harry's school things and the item from vault 713.
As he lied in bed, Harry realised that that must have been what was under the trapdoor. He'd have to tell John in the morning.
Don't forget to review! Seriously, this only has 6 reviews and has been up since September! I need to know whether I'm writing this well or not!
Harry Potter-JK Rowling
Doctor Who-BBC
