You Don't Want to Go Home, But You Shouldn't Stay Here
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Hagrid was surprisingly difficult to keep up with as he sprinted through the castle. It probably had something to do with the fact that Shirou had to take three steps to each of the large man's one.
Their only saving grace that allowed them to keep up was that Hagrid had to slow down and move carefully around groups of students in the hallways. The fact that he would occasionally shout "Fluffy!" as he ran only helped them keep him in sight.
Even still, Hermione lost stamina rather quickly into their impromptu castle dash. The studious girl collapsed against one of the nearby walls, gasping for breath.
Shirou quickly backtracked to pick her up.
Ignoring her protests, he Reinforced his body and quickly caught back up to the others.
Rin did a doubletake as Shirou caught up next to her while carrying Hermione in his arms.
"I didn't know getting carried was an option for this." She said between steady breaths.
Iris glanced back at her words and almost ran full on into an upper year student that had stepped out of a nearby classroom to see what the fuss was about.
She danced around him at the last minute, barely breaking stride, and yelled an apology over her shoulder as she took another corner.
They chased Hagrid through the castle, up and down staircases, and through winding hallways until they were all completely lost.
Eventually, one of Hagrid's frantic cries elicited a response from a familiar, scathing voice.
"Hagrid?" Snape snarled. "Get in here and curb your mutt!"
Iris stopped so fast that the rest of them almost bowled into her.
She grabbed hold of Shirou and Rin's hands and pulled them both up against a wall, and then began to edge forwards to where they had heard Snape's voice from.
They approached the only open door in the hallway, which had light pouring out of it.
Shirou took note of a small trail of blood that led away from the door and disappeared at a nearby wall.
Investigating it would require him to walk across the open doorway, so he kept it in mind to look into later.
Iris leaned over so that she could peer into the open doorway, and froze in place.
Shirou carefully sidled around her so that he could get his own view into the room without being seen.
The room he looked into was huge.
At the very end of the room, Hagrid was tending to an absolutely enormous three-headed dog.
The creature was covered in fresh wounds, and the spread of its blood across the floor of the room told of an impressive battle it had recently been party to.
Now though, the creature whimpered as Hagrid spread some strange goop over its injured hide.
Snape stood among the bloodstains in the middle of the room, staring down into a large square hole that looked like it had once been covered by a trap door, if the broken pieces of wood at the edges were anything to go by.
As they watched, Dumbledore rose out of the hole in the floor, riding on an old rickety broom.
"None of the other rooms have been entered." He said as he touched down. "It seems that Hagrid's delightful pet has kept the thief at bay."
Snape scowled over at where Hagrid was still ministering to the gigantic three headed dog.
"It was Quirrell though?" Snape asked, causing Dumbledore to sigh. "I saw him wandering through this area a time or two, but I never even considered that he might be considering a break-in."
"It certainly seems to have been him." He replied. "He must have attempted to hurt Iris in the hopes that it would draw our attention away from our defenses here. Though I must admit, I cannot fathom his motives."
He glanced back down into the hole.
"We shall have to rethink our protections. Quirrell was in charge of the second to last room. It is likely that he knows about the protections on the first three rooms."
"Even if he were to get through our challenges, do you think he would be able to get through your protections?" Snape asked mildly.
"I would not leave it to chance." Dumbledore replied curtly, earning a nod from Snape.
"Speak to the teachers about Quirrell's betrayal." Dumbledore continued. "Please have Minerva warn the students about him. I must speak to the portraits to see if any of them have seen him about the castle.
"He has failed to capture his target, but I won't risk the students by assuming that he's left the castle."
After saying his piece, Dumbledore began to stride from the room.
Seeing him approach, the eavesdropping students all backpedaled from the open door and fled down the hallway.
-o-o-o-o-
Iris leaned out of the alcove they were hiding in and checked the both directions of the hallway.
They were far away from the forbidden third floor corridor, but you never knew who might come out of a random classroom or secret passage in this school.
"Did you hear all that?" Iris whispered.
"It seems that Quirrell was the one that attacked you earlier." Shirou nodded.
"What?" Iris blinked in confusion. "Oh. Yeah... That's a good point. I was actually talking about the fact that he tried to steal something from the school."
"And whatever it is," Rin stepped into the conversation, "it's very heavily guarded. If the first line of defense is a three headed dog, I can't imagine what the following protections are like."
"I remember Hagrid having to pick something up from Gringotts when he took me to Diagon Alley." Iris said. "A few days later, the vault was broken into."
"Ummm." Hermione broke in. "Can we go back to the point where a teacher tried to hurt or potentially kill Iris? I feel like we should be giving that more attention." She looked over to Shirou for support.
He nodded.
"And he might still be in the castle." Hermione continued. "I don't know how safe I will be able to feel in a castle where a murderous thief might also be staying. Not to even mention that giant dog. Maybe we should contact our parents and get them to pull us out of school until we can be sure that there aren't any crazy teachers around."
Rin mumbled a few uncomplimentary things about Snape under her breath.
Iris though, paled at Hermione's suggestion.
"Come on, Hermione." She laughed forcibly. "There's no reason to do something so extreme. I've been told that this castle is one of the safest places in all of Britain."
Hermione stared.
"Iris..." She spoke carefully, like she was explaining something to a child. "One of the teachers here tried to kill you."
Iris nodded and crossed her arms.
"And I don't intend to let such a trivial thing get in the way of my education."
Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but seemed to actually struggle with Iris's argument.
"Now come on." Iris stepped out of the alcove. "It's almost time for dinner."
She began to walk in a direction that she hoped would eventually lead to the Great Hall.
Shirou fell in step next to her, looking her over as she got her breathing under control.
Rin glanced over at Hermione.
"You really couldn't argue against that?" She asked, shaking her head.
She grabbed Hermione by the arm and pushed her along to catch up with the other two.
"Iris." Shirou said as they walked along. The girl hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't look at him. "It may be dangerous for you here." He saw her lips turn down into a frown, and the skin around her eyes tightened. "I think you should have me along with you if you intend to go anywhere away from crowds."
Almost as one, the girls of the group stumbled to a stop.
"Thanks, Shirou." Iris said from his side.
"That's your solution?" Hermione asked incredulously. "A crazy teacher tried to kill her and may still be wandering through the school, and your response is to play 'bodyguard'?"
Shirou shrugged. It was dangerous here, but Iris wasn't exactly safe in her own house either.
At least here, he could be around to protect her.
"Learning magic can be pretty dangerous." He said simply.
"Not in the sense that people are trying to kill you!" Hermione raged.
He shrugged again. That hadn't really been his experience when learning magic.
