Lloyd stayed in the common room, working late on homework by fire light while the other two, who didn't have such a reason to be up, lay awake listening to the other three boys in their dorm falling asleep. Ron had been full of advice on the magic aspect, saying that Harry should dodge rather than try to block. Lloyd'd been quiet, working on several homework assignments he had left off until the day before. When Ron had turned on him for this, Lloyd had said that 'if I fill his head with help now, he's more likely to get confused. I'll help when we get there and duel.' There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, although Lloyd was fairly certain they wouldn't be.
"half past eleven." Ron whispers, rolling over to look at Harry across the darkness. "Time to go." Both boys pulled on bathrobes, pocketed wands, and crept down to the common room. Lloyd wasn't anywhere in sight, but his homework was still there. They looked at each other, and shrugged, heading for the portrait hole, when the chair nearest them spoke.
"I can't believe you're doing this, Harry." Hermione, with a pink bathrobe and a frown on her face, a lamp in hand.
"You." Ron hisses. "go back to bed!"
"I almost told your brother." Hermione snapped back. "Percy, he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this." Harry frowned, and Lloyd returned then.
"But you didn't." Lloyd says, startling the three – he'd changed into a long dark shirt and gloves, and had shed his robe. An ash-black belt was across his torso, something held behind him, wrapped in his robes. He had blended in with the surrounding darkness, his clothes a dark grey rather than black. "Which means you want to come along, hm? You didn't tattle because you wanted something." Hermione gaped at the brunette, who didn't quite look so cheery without his carefree grin and bright red garments under the 'dress' he protested about.
"Come on. We've got to get there..." Harry says, heading for the portrait hole. Ron moves with them, and with a quick grin, so does Lloyd. Hermione recovered before they got out, hissing after them like an angry goose.
"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."
"If you're going to come with us, stop talking. You'll be caught too if you continue." Lloyd says with a grin, while Ron hisses back "Go away." They were outside the portrait now, and Lloyd was struggling to flatten his hair.
"All right, but I'm warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so –" whatever she was going to tell them that they were, was cut off as she turned around. She was facing an empty painting. The fat lady was gone, and she had no hope of getting back in without her there. "Now what am I going to do?" she asks shrilly, but Lloyd moved and clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Not so loud. Do you want to get caught? Things like that echo." Lloyd hisses. "Keep your voice low, pitch and volume."
"That's your problem." Ron says. "We've got to go; we're going to be late." Lloyd released Hermione, and moved back to the other two. They hadn't made it down the corridor when Hermione rejoined them.
"I'm coming with you." Hermione had listened to what Lloyd had said, and although she couldn't do much in the way of pitch, her volume was indeed low.
"You are not."
"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you –"
"Do you really think he'd believe that?" Lloyd asks, very casually. "We're Gryffindors, the brave and loyal lot. Its Slytherins job to sell out class mates, isn't it? And from my own run-ins with him, he just doesn't like us kids. He'd get you as well as us." This shut Hermione up, and Ron's retort. But Hermione brought something else up.
".. Is that a sword?!" she asks of Lloyd, indicating the wrapped bundle on his back. Ron looked startled, and Harry noticed Lloyd was abruptly grinning. One of those grins that made you question his sanity and wonder why he was so pleased with himself.
"Yes. Yes it is." He says smugly, reaching back to pat the long part that reached above his head, the hilt the boys guessed. "And before you ask, I can use it too. It's wrapped in my robe." (1)
"How did you get that into Hogwarts?" Hermione asks, looking startled.
"Hidden. On me. I've got more. For variety's sake." Harry, Ron and Hermione stop walking, and Lloyd notices only after he took another few steps. "Sylph, I said that out loud?" Lloyd rubbed the back of his head, turning to face them with a bashful grin. "They're well hidden, don't worry."
"And he's stable enough not to whip them out in the middle of class." Harry says after his moment of shock. "So don't worry. He didn't even use them on Malfoy or his goons the first time they fought."
"They weren't worth it." Lloyd says, before he starts walking again. "And they still aren't, but there're some spells I can cast through a blade, but not a wand. And this guy," Lloyd pats the hilt behind his head once again," is the only single blade I have. All the others are supposed to be sets, or I'm not used to using them alone. I can tell them my wand's in here." That last was said a little evilly.
"You act like it's named." Hermione snorts, keeping in their shadows as they continue moving through corridors. " Like it's a person too, or something."
"It is, and so are the other ones. They're named as the type of blade they are. Shiden, Saint's Rapier, Material Blades, Angel's Tear..." Lloyd says quietly, his brown eyes alert. "This is The Eternal Sword." The other three could hear the capitals. They reached the trophy room, and neither Malfoy nor Crabbe was there. Harry kept his wand out, incase Malfoy approached suddenly and started at once, while Lloyd looked over the trophy case. Cups, shields, plates, statues winked at them in the darkness.
"He's late." Ron whispered after several minutes had slowly gone by. "maybe he chickened out."
"shh!" Lloyd said, eyes wild, before a noise in one of the adjacent rooms made the others jump, Harry raising his wand when they heard someone speak. And it wasn't one of the boys they were waiting for.
"Sniff around, my sweet. They might be lurking in a corner." Filch, and My Sweet could only have been Mrs. Norris. Horrified, Lloyd moved to the opposite door while Harry motioned them quickly out of it and down the hall. Lloyd eased the door shut before they heard Filch get into the Trophy room. "They're in here somewhere." They heard him mutter. "Probably hiding."
"This way." Harry mouthed to the others, and they all took off down the corridor. Lloyd was by far the fastest, and when he noticed how far he had pulled ahead, he ran back to them, and grabbed the person in last. Hermione shrieked when Lloyd picked her up, the noise causing Ron to jerk into a suit of armor. Lloyd didn't put her down however, which left Harry to help Ron free.
"Run!" Lloyd sounded like his adult-self when he barked that, still holding Hermione about the waist as he takes his own advice and bolts. They headed down a hidden passageway, and ended up near the Charms classroom. Lloyd set Hermione down then, the witch looking a little pale in the moonlight.
"think we lost him." Harry panted, leaning against the wall as Lloyd put his hands on his knees and took in air, the sword still on his back. The hilt had freed itself, however, and it was golden, with white for where hands would go. The guard was curved back toward the hilt, and there were two, one of the thick golden brown bars was hidden, but the point where the first connected was visible.
" I –told – you." Hermione hissed, the least out of breath, although Lloyd straitened shortly. "I – told – you."
"we didn't get actually caught." Lloyd says, looking about.
"we've got to get back to Gryffindor tower." Ron says. "Quickly as possible."
"Malfoy tricked you." Hermione said to 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." Harry privately agreed, but telling the bossy girl this wasn't going to help.
"Let's go." The knob on a door near them rattled as soon as they started walking, and something came shooting out of the classroom before them. Lloyd's robe flared in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione, the blade in his hands. But it was only the poltergeist, Peeves. He saw them, and giggled shrilly. Lloyd held a massive double edged sword, which was violet, with a white edge and curious red spots less than a hand from the strange hilt, which had the blade on it as well, the second bar curving far less than the first, but the blade was affixed to that. Lloyd held it in both hands, crouched partially so that it was still angled up, but also closer to the floor. He glared at the ghost.
"Shut up, Peeves – please – you'll get us thrown out."
Peeves cackled again. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, Naughty, you'll be caughty."
"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."
"Should tell Filch, I should." Said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."
"Not if I slice you in half." Lloyd growls, taking a step forward and shifting his blade up and over his shoulder.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellows, floating up and away from Lloyd and his blade. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" Lloyd snarls, and takes a swing at the ghost anyway, missing, and snagged his robe, before running with the other three straight into a door. It was locked. Harry pounded on it while Lloyd wrapped his blade again.
"This is it!" Ron moaned as they worked at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!"
"I'd break it down, but that'd be a dead giveaway." Lloyd mutters. They could hear footsteps.
"Move over." Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and thus his wand, and tapped the lock. "Alohamora!" she hisses. The lock clicked, Lloyd grinned his appreciation, and they all moved in, and pressed against the door, listening.
"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch demanded. "Quick, tell me."
"Say 'please'." Lloyd quietly finished wrapping his blade in his robe again, affixing it to his belt.
"Don't mess with me, peeves, now where did they go?"
"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please." Peeves said in an annoying singsong.
"All right – please."
"NOTHING! Ha haaa!" Lloyd turned away from the door. "told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaa!" they heard Peeves whooshing away, Filch cursing, and Lloyd cursing under his breath, although the words they used were far different.
"He thinks the doors locked." Harry whispers.
"Don't move." Lloyd says, slowly, softly. "Actually, move. Slowly, very slowly, turn around. Don't scream, don't shout, don't panic, just slowly turn around." His voice was low, and steady. They weren't in a room after all, but rather a corridor. On the third floor. That forbidden one. And now they saw why. Fortunately, they managed to keep their surprise at a sharp inhale, as Lloyd stared down one head of a large, three headed dog. It was monstrous, taking up all the space from floor to ceiling, all six eyes fixed on them, and one pair fixed firmly on Lloyd. And it was growling. "One of you, slowly, slowly, without looking away, get that door open." Lloyd continued talking, his voice still very low, very slow. "Let's get out of here before it thinks us a snack." Harry did so, his hand groping across the door for the handle, and then opening it. "Move!" Lloyd roars, taking a step forward and startling the large beast, before leaping backwards out of it, on the heels of the others. He slammed the door shut before catching up with them, racing along without heed of Filch to the seventh floor.
"Where on earth have you all been?" the fat lady asked as they finally stopped running. Lloyd grinned at her.
"I was showing them how to defend themselves hand to hand." Lloyd said cheerily, if a little breathless.
"Pig snout, pig snout." Harry pants and the fat lady's painting moved for them. They scrambled in, and collapsed in armchairs. Lloyd dropped himself before the fire. It was a while before any of them said anything.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asks finally. "If any dog needs exercise, it's that one." Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back.
"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Lloyd sat up, and watched her quietly.
"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."
"A trapdoor." Lloyd says, taking off his sword, belt, and then gloves. "It was standing on a trapdoor, one of the kinds for cellars, or something of that sort, rather than a pitfall." He still had his strange bracelet of the teardrop shaped brown-gold metal under an indigo gem on his left hand. He shucked his jacket too, then his boots. "A guard, either for keeping something down, or people out." He wasn't smiling now, as he twisted in place, stretching. Hermione stood up, glaring at the calm way Lloyd told them this.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled." Lloyd snorted at this, amused, and she huffed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
"We don't mind." Ron said, staring after her. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."
"Her priorities need a little help." Lloyd says standing and gathering his clothing. The sword was gone as he moved to the table with his homework, but he had a ring on one thumb. "Well, I'm done for the night. See ya at breakfast. You might want to write dad about your new sport. Might want to ask McGonagall about it first, just to make sure it's safe to get delivered, but..." Lloyd waved at them, and vanished up the stairs.
".. your brother wears jewelry." Ron points out in a sort of abstract way.
"Never seen him bare handed without it." Harry says, but his mind was racing. It was still racing when he finally drifted to sleep, with the idea to talk to Hagrid. He had mentioned that Hogwarts was the next safest place to hide anything, next to Gringotts. Gringotts had been broken into. Something guarded here. An empty vault.
(1) Do you really think Lloyd'd go anywhere without swords? Even if they live in 'civilized' times?
I don't particularly beleive so :D