Hello!
Quidditch by the end of September won't work, but I'll try to get Halloween done.
Thanks yet again, my beta Luke Amranvor.
"Before we continue: I've been wondering for a while now, do we get to change things?" Lily asked Loki.
Everyone looked at Loki interested.
"Indeed, you can", Loki answered slowly, "Yet at the same time, none of your efforts will have any effect to us."
Sirius was confused: "What?"
"When you will go back, exactly to the same time you left, you will remember everything. Obviously, you will change things. That will cause the time line to split in two lines. One where this never happened and one with your changes."
"But what about me? When I go back, will everything be as I know it or will I be in the changed time line?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah, me and Collin too."
Loki thought for a second. "I have to say, I am not sure. Both would be possible."
After about a minute Lily volunteered to read. Hermione passed her the book and Lily groaned.
"Why did you have to take after your father?"
James looked in the book (Lily was still sitting on his lap). "You're right, that sounds like me."
"The Midnight Duel", Lily read.
Remus laughed: "Now I get what you mean."
Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley,
"I don't think I would have either", Darcy agreed, not realizing that Dudley was in the room.
"I was an ass", the boy/man in question admitted.
but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.
"I also was one", Draco added.
Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins,
"Why did they always put us together in the most dangerous classes? In Potions and DADA a lot can happen. Why not put them together in like History and Astronomy? I bet that would prevent a lot of injuries", Harry wondered.
"Good point", Hermione said adding it to the list with things to improve at Hogwarts they noticed.
so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday
"Why would that cause a groan?" Sirius inquired.
"Because Gryffindor and Slytherin are having the lessons together", Bruce guessed. Tony nodded along.
- and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.
Clint once again wondered how the geniuses did that.
"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."
"That's not exactly what happened, was it?" Neville asked.
"Not possible. All Potters are great flyers", James said.
He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.
"Of course you did, you're a Potter", Sirius commented
"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."
"It kind of was. I've flown before but I exaggerated", Draco disproved of his younger self's actions.
Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams
"Yes, they never do it", Katie exclaimed sarcastically.
and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.
"Which were all invented. I didn't even know what a helicopter is. Just that it flies."
He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick.
"Well he's from Ireland..." Ron began.
"Actually he meant his preschool broomstick and other brooms for children. These things don't even get higher than one or two meters", Harry corrected.
Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.
"When exactly did you do this?" his parents and siblings chorused, making Ron blush and the laugh.
Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly.
"You mean able to fly", Hermione glared.
"Have you ever watched a soccer game?" Tony asked.
Ron shook his head.
"I'll take you to one" Tony replied in a voice that made it obvious Ron had no choice in that matter.
Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.
Percy, Hermione and Harry face palmed.
Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one.
"I had enough accidents with both feet on the ground." explained Neville
Harry stared at Neville weirdly. "I'll explain later" Neville told Harry.
Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.
The rest of them stared at the men.
Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was.
"It wasn't something you can learn from a book", Tony guessed.
"But I bet she tried", Bruce added.
This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book — not that she hadn't tried.
"This really has to stop", Harry groaned while the others laughed.
At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.
"The only book – bar these for mischief or BEEEEEEP which I've ever read voluntary."
Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.
"Must have been a sight", Jane said in a Luna-like voice.
Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course.
Draco muttered something which Remus and the others with enchanted hearing understood as: "Stupid eleven-year-old me."
Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.
Draco banged his head on the table again.
A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.
"What?" Natasha asked causing the not paranoid ones (everyone but Teddy, Harry, Tony, Loki and Clint) to jump.
"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things — this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh…" His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "… you've forgotten something…"
"Does it tell you what you've forgot?" Bruce asked excited.
Percy frowned: "Nooo"
"What? It's useless this way!"
Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.
Draco just left his head on the table and mentioned for Lily to continue.
Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy,
"Not really", Harry said, "I mean kind of...I mean."
but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school,
"Naturally"
was there in a flash.
Tony laughed remembering the Flash comics he reads. I mean, used to read.
"What's going on?"
"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."
Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.
"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.
At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn
"Perfect weather for flying", said the Quidditch nuts.
on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.
"Why don't you get new brooms?" Steve asked, "These ones sound dangerous"
"They are", confirmed Percy, "But new brooms are too expensive."
"So why not let the broom sellers sponsor them? They would gift new brooms in return for being allowed to advertise with something like 'The Broomsticks Hogwarts trusts' or something?", Tony wondered.
Hermione muttered: "Good idea" and added it to her list.
Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
The Quidditch nuts shuddered at the thought if these brooms. As did the mothers (which includes Tonks and Lily as they know that they are going to be mothers someday), but for other reasons.
"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"
"UP" everyone shouted.
Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once,
"You're a natural!" yelled Sirius jumping out of his chair. James would have done the same, but Lily was still sitting on him.
but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry;
The Wizards and Witches stared at Harry.
"That's...that's actually a brilliant theory!" James complimented.
Percy wrote it down so that he would remember to research it later. Or order someone to.
there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.
"I really would have preferred that."
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.
"I'm sorry", Harry apologized.
"You have to stop that, mate. You're making the rest of us seem bad."
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch.
"Something is going to go wrong", Bruce assumed.
"Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.
Bruce looked slightly pleased with himself, while the other Avengers (minus Tony who did the same thing sometimes)had long given up on trying to follow the connections the geniuses made.
"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — twelve feet — twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and — WHAM — a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap.
"That must have hurt", Tonks and Darcy winched.
His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.
"Well, one less bad broom to worry about", Sirius joked.
Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.
"Broken wrist,"
"Nothing bad than", Lily let out the breath she was holding.
Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the class.
"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing!
"Because that is going to work", Clint said sarcastically.
You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."
Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.
"Once again I'm sorry."
"Did you see his face, the great lump?"
The other Slytherins joined in.
"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."
"Wait...she called her Parvati. Not Patil. Why that?" Jane inquired having noticed a pattern.
"The two of them and Padma did everything together. After the sorting that stopped", Draco explained.
"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass.
"The Remembrall?", Tony asked.
"It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."
The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.
Malfoy smiled nastily.
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — up a tree?"
"I'm-"
"You can stop, Draco. I know you are sorry", Neville interrupted.
"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"
"You didn't expect him to do, did you", Bruce assumed.
Harry grabbed his broom.
"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble."
"Errr...why?" Natasha wondered, "I mean just the two of them would get In trouble, wouldn't they? And you tried to stop them, and Harry sounds like he'd say this, so you'd have to expect even less."
Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him — and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught — this was easy, this was wonderful.
"YOU'RE A NATURAL!" Sirius yelled.
He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground
"Bar Hermione", Ron added.
and an admiring whoop from Ron.
"It was amazing, you know."
He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.
"I was."
"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"
"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.
"I was."
Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.
"Mostly Gryffindors", Neville said.
"Excuse me, mostly?" Remus and Regulus wondered.
"Daphane Greengrass. Draco's sister-in-law-", Neville explained.
"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.
"That's right."
The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.
"It did"
"Catch it if you can, then!"
Tony smiled at Bruce and Clint. They chorused: "I understood that reference."
"...what", Severus asked confused.
"There's a movie called Catch me if you can. It's with Leonardo DiCaprio", Clint answered.
he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.
Draco looked down: "I was sure you would crash"
Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down — next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball — wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching — he stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.
"...Not even Charlie could have done this", Percy yelled.
"THAT WAS YOUR FIRST TIME ON A BROOM!?" Sirius exclaimed.
"HARRY POTTER!"
"Busted", all the pranksters said.
His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.
"I was seriously – don't – worried."
"Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how dare you — might have broken your neck —"
"Other people maybe, but not Harry Potter!" Fred announced.
"It wasn't his fault, Professor —"
"Exactly!" Tony agreed.
"Be quiet, Miss Patil —"
"She isn't even listening?!" Tony exclaimed angrily. It was similar to what had happened to him once during college (when he was 14), he still didn't like to talk (or think) about it.
"...Are you okay?" Remus asked.
"Sort of."
"But Malfoy —"
"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."
Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left,
"Once aga-"
"You can stop it, Draco."
"You do know you're a hypocrite, don't you?"
"Shut up, 'Mione."
walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it.
"That's not exactly what happened...", Katie laughed-
He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it.
"Pessi-"
"Imagine you in my exact situation, Gred"
"Touché."
He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?
"Dad would probably have put you in an orphanage or something."
Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore.
"Nope, she was taking you to my BEEEEEP...I totally forgot about that thing."
He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.
"Please try to stop thinking like that" Ginny begged her husband.
"I'll try, but I can't promise anything."
Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.
"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"
"What the heck", Tony started, before looking at Katie "...ohhhhhh"
Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?
"McGonagall would be horrified, if she new you thought this", Hermonie stated.
"You can't exactly blame him", Dudley protested embarrassed.
But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.
"Oh, he was", Katie clarified, "He told me that loads of times. Not that I mind."
"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.
"In here."
Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves,
The pranksters smiled at the mention of Peeves.
who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.
The Marauders looked at each other and chorused: "We taught him some of them."
Lily who had moved from James' lap now sitting next to him giggled.
"Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.
"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood — I've found you a Seeker."
Sirius, Remus, Regulus, James and Tonks were stunned. "But …. but first years never..."
Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.
"Are you serious, Professor?"
"No, I am."
"Sirius. That joke got old when you were five", Regulus said.
The pranksters laughed.
"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"
"Yes, it was my first time on a real broomstick."
Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.
"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."
"That's what I said!" Percy said.
Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.
"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.
"He was raised by magic-hating muggles. What do you think?" Lily asked sarcastically.
"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.
"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light —speedy — we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor — a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."
"Ohh a Nimbus? They are top of the line?" James asked.
"At that point? Yes. Now? BEEP. Why"
James answered: "My Dad has been asked to sponsor them and he is...was still thinking when we left as far as I know."
"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule.
"So THAT'S how you do it", Sirius sighed.
Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"
The Marauders, Fred and non-magical pranksters laughed.
Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.
"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you."
Then she suddenly smiled.
"...she smiled to you?" James was stunned. She normally would hide her smile outside of class when in presence of students.
"She did."
"Your father would have been proud,"
"I would be...I mean am."
she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."
"Thank you, Minnie!"
"You're joking."
"Before you argue, James, it's skips to dinner", Lily prevented a (short) argument from happening.
It was dinnertime. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.
"YOU MADE RON FORGET ABOUT FOOD!?" Mrs. Weasley yelled honestly shocked.
Ron blushed and everyone else laughed. Even Natasha smiled for like a second.
"Seeker?" he said. "But first years never — you must be the youngest house player in about —"
" — a century," said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth.
"Did Ron remember the food?" Fred asked.
"No"
The Weasley twins actually fainted.
"My husband told you that didn't he?"
He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."
"Katie was right!" George exclaimed standing up.
Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at Harry.
"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."
"No one can keep a secret in Hogwarts", Regulus stated with Tonks, Lily and Severus nodding in agreement.
"Oh, believe me, it is", James and Harry answered.
Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.
"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too — Beaters."
"The best", everyone who had seen them play said.
"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."
"Wait, did I say almost? I apologize for my mistake years to late". Fred put his head down.
"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."
"Did he?" the Marauders asked excited.
"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week.
Sirius was stunned. "First week? We only found it in our third!"
The Weasley twins looked incredibly proud.
See you."
Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.
"Having a last meal, Potter?
"That would mean he got sentenced to Death", Natasha clarified.
"I know that now."
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," said Harry coolly. There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.
"Not, that they can do much more anyways", Draco commented.
"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel.
"You're first years", Regulus said deadpanned.
Wands only — no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"
"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"
"RONALD WEASLEY!"
"THAT WAS OVER TEN YEARS AGO MOM!"
Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.
"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."
"I smell a trap", Tony whispered loudly, the spies nodding in agreement.
When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.
"What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"
"That's what I'd like to know", Jane muttered.
"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually,
"I love how you say it so casually", Clint laughed.
getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards.
"You were fake wizards then or what?", Dudley wondered jokingly.
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."
"I did."
"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"
"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Sirius suggested.
"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.
Everyone started to look between these two.
"Excuse me."
"Let me guess, Hermione?" Bruce – guess what – guessed.
They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.
"Trying, and probably failing to be the voice of reason", Remus guessed, "That's how I became a BEEEEEEP."
"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.
Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.
"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —"
"Bet you could," Ron muttered.
"RONALD!"
"SHE MARRIED ME! I DON'T THINK SHE STILL MINDS!"
"— and you mustn't go wandering 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 none of your business," said Harry.
"Sorry"
"See, I told you you're a hypocrite!"
"Shut up, Mia."
"Good-bye," said Ron.
All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing).
"But Madame BEEEEEEP can heal it in seconds!" Remus protested.
Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."
"Reeeeeaaaaally helpful", James said sarcastically.
"I know, right", Ron replied in the same voice.
There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today.
"That were times", Harry said nostalgically.
On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness — this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.
"Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "we'd better go."
They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."
"Ahhh, back when braking rules were my biggest problems"
A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.
"The only time I've seen you in pink", Ron said
"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"
"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."
Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.
"I was"
"Sorry"
"What is this? Apologize for everything you've ever done to/said to/thought about someone?" Ginny wondered.
"Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.
Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.
"How do you know how that sounds?" Darcy wondered.
"That's a long story which I am not going to tell."
"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."
"Go away."
"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"
"Someone tell me why I thought this as the punishment for breaking curfew?"
But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.
"She always does that at the worst times", the Gryffindor pranksters muttered angrily.
"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.
"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."
They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.
"I'm coming with you," she said.
"Wait-"
"What?"
"You are not."
"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."
"Did you think-"
"That would work?"
"You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.
"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."
It was a sort of snuffling.
"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.
It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville.
"Whyyyyyyyy?" Regulus wondered.
He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.
"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."
"You've got a really bad memory", Lily worried.
"Well, I got one or two BEEEEEP when my BEEEEEP were BEEEEEEP."
"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."
"How's your arm?" said Harry.
Lily, Tonks and Darcy cooed.
"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."
"Good — well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later —"
"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."
"The Bloody Baron is scary", Regulus admitted.
Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.
"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."
"You mean MY BEP BEEEP Curse?"
"Yes"
Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies,
"You assumed correctly."
but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.
They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows.
"Sounds majestic", Clint breathed.
At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.
Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet.
"Nor were we coming."
The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.
"Go back to bed", the troublemakers advised.
"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.
Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.
"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."
"FILCH!" Fred yelled.
It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."
"No, really? Here I was thinking they went to Narnia", Tony commented sarcastically.
"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.
"Bad luck", Clint muttered.
The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.
Percy thought a second. "...No, no it wasn't"
"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.
"That's a new one, thanks", Remus said writing it down.
"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.
"I —told — you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I — told — you."
"Not the best time for an 'I-told-you-so'!" Hermione admitted.
"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "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."
"I did"
Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.
"That was good of you."
"Let's go."
It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.
It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.
"Peeves!" exclaimed the people who like him at the same time.
"Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out."
Peeves cackled.
"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."
"Urgh, as much as I like him, I hate his poems," James sighed.
"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."
"Get out of the way," snapped Ron,
"Mistake there little brother."
"Technically, I'm older than you now."
taking a swipe at Peeves this was a big mistake.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
"See, that's what happens."
Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door — and it was locked.
"The forbidden corridor?" Bruce and Tony chorused.
"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"
"So my husband isn't the only pessimist...you learn new things every day."
They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.
"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"
"That's not a first year spell, is it?" Percy tried to remember.
"It isn't. It's second year", Hermione informed him.
The lock clicked and the door swung open — they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.
"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."
"Say 'please.'"
"Oh, this is gonna be good", the Gryffindor pranksters leaned forwards in their seats.
"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"
"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.
"All right —please."
"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!"
The pranksters laughed and the rest rolled their eyes.
Sirius whipped fake tears from his eyes and said: "I love this guy."
And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.
"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay — get off, Neville!"
"What? Clint asked in confusion.
For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?"
Harry turned around — and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare — this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.
"It was nothing", Harry dismissed.
"I'd like to disagree", Neville said with the other Golden Trio members nodding in agreement.
They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor.
"We were right!", Tony exclaimed.
And now they knew why it was forbidden.
"Oh no", Lily groaned.
The Weasley Twins, Remus, Sirius and Arthur gave them thumbs up.
James looked torn unsure what to do or think.
They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog,
"Well, that's not that bad", Sirius stated.
"I wasn't finished", Lily snapped.
a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor.
"Oh. I take that back."
It had three heads.
"A Cerberus? In a school?" Regulus wondered deeply shocked.
Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.
"RUN!" yelled everyone who had never been in the corridor while it was forbidden.
It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.
"RUN!" everybody repeated.
Harry groped for the doorknob — between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.
"Thank Merlin", Lily whispered inaudible.
They fell backward — Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere,
"At least a bit luck", Sirius smiled.
but they hardly cared — all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster.
"Good", their parents chorused.
They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.
"Wow, that's a long way", Percy commented astounded.
"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.
"Why does she suddenly care?" the Marauders wondered.
"Never mind that — pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.
"I probably would have to", Jane said.
It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.
"It wasn't that bad."
"I was, Nev. I was", Harry disagreed.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."
Everyone but Severus and Natasha were laughing.
Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"The floor?" most guessed.
"Not the floor?" Natasha, Bruce, Remus and Tony argued.
"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."
"I was too afraid to look up to be honest."
"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."
"The BEEEEEEEEEP's BEEEP", Tony assumed. He read the front.
"Looks like you're right"
She stood up, glaring at them.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled.
"I'm happy you sorted your priorities", Tonks and Darcy agreed with each other.
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
"Probably the best thing you can do", Lily and Molly stated.
Ron stared after her, his mouth open.
"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."
"Kind of", Darcy thought out loud.
But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something… What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide — except perhaps Hogwarts.
"No Hogwarts isn't exactly the safest place ever", Ron muttered.
It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.
"End of the Chapter", Lily finished, "Who's next?"
Okay, I have to go to school now
~Marvelgeek42