Okay so...I realise that at the end of the last chapter I said that I might not be able to update for a while...but I didn't even know I'd be MIA for two years! HA...a ha...ha..hem...

Anyway...it's all good right...I'm back from the land of distraction and what not...I mean, yeah, I'm still quite busy, but I'm going to focus exclusively on this fanfic until it's completion before I go back to working on my other ones.

Right, so, I'm very sorry for this huge delay...Gosh reading this over again I've really noticed too many spelling mistakes (back then I don't think I had spell check and I was rushing to push the chapters out in the midst of my hectic school life...). However, I think it's now time for me to end this apologetic rant, as I'm sure you all want to get to the next part of this fic and honestly, so do I.

So, without further ado...

Let's get on with it!

Chapter 10

Adventures at Midnight

Ron had been awed and amazed by Harry's unlikely story of how he had done the impossible and made it onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team in his first year at Hogwarts. He had told Ron all about it over their dinner of steak-and-kidney pie at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Harry himself was still in shock at the events of the day and he was certain nothing could ruin his good mood.

"I start training next week," Harry informed Ron after repeating the whole story for the third time. "But Wood's told me not to tell anyone. He doesn't want the other teams knowing Gryffindor's found a seeker already."

"Too right," came a voice from behind them. "Wood's got you lined you up as our new secret weapon."

Harry and Ron turned to see Fred and George grinning identically down at them. "Welcome to the team Harry," George said in a low voice.

"We're Beaters," Fred elaborated at Harry's questioning look.

"Can't wait to see you play," said George.

"Yeah, Wood was practically skipping when he told us about you today."

"Must be good," said the twins in unison.

"Er...Well..." Harry shifted uncomfortably under their scrutiny but the twins were already talking again.

"Anyway, we'll see you around," Fred said. "Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new passage leading out of the school, but I bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first year. Laters!"

No sooner had the twins disappeared that Malfoy and his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, strutted up to the table.

"Surprised to see you here Potter," Malfoy smirked, "Waiting for the train to come pick you up are you? Won't Mummy and Daddy be disappointed you got expelled so soon?"

"What do you want Malfoy?" Harry said coolly, "I see you're a lot braver now you've got them with you." He nodded towards Crabbe and Goyle who were cracking their knuckles menacingly.

"What?" Malfoy arched a pale brow. "You think I couldn't take you on my own? How about we have a little duel. Wands only. Not scared, are you Potter?"

"Not at all," Harry said, almost too eager to put Malfoy in his place, "Ron'll be my second, who's yours".

"Crabbe," Malfoy said and the tall, brutish boy exchanged glares with Ron. "We'll meet tonight at midnight, the trophy room. Don't be late, Potter."

As Malfoy strode off, Harry turned to Ron apologetically. "Sorry for putting you in it like that," he said. "You can-"

"Are you joking?" Ron said, "I can't wait to see Malfoy try to worm his way out of this one. Know any spells?"

"Er...a couple." Harry said scratching his head. "Hopefully more that he does."

"Ahem, excuse me," a girl's voice interrupted.

They turned to see Hermione Granger with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes narrowed at them.

"I couldn't help but overhear you-"

"I bet you could?" Ron muttered.

"And I think I've really got to tell you that you mustn't go wandering about the castle at night," she continued. "Think of all the trouble you'll be in. You could lose Gryffindor so many points. It's really quite selfish of you to even think about it!"

"Is that all?" Harry said dryly.

"Thanks for that but I really don't think this is any of your business," said Ron. "Goodbye."

Despite Harry's initial unconcern over Hermione Granger's disapproval of his and Ron's midnight plans he found, as the night crept on, that his bravado was fading and thoughts of getting into terrible trouble (which he had only just avoided that very day by chance) were beginning to bother him. By wandering the Hogwarts corridors at night he was opening himself up to the possibility of being caught by Filch or his cat Mrs. Norris who was notorious for being able to alert her master to any students out of bed in the blink of an eye. Harry wondered if it was pushing his luck a bit too much to expect to get away with this wizard's duel in the trophy room at midnight. However, his father did tell him that Hogwarts was made for having adventures, and honestly Harry just wanted to wipe that smug look off Malfoy's face when he bested him in a duel.

"Harry," he heard Ron whisper from the neighbouring bed. "It's half past eleven, we'd better get going."

Both boys held their breaths as they tiptoed past the slumbering Dean and Seamus and out of the dormitory. As they snuck into the common room the appearance of a bushy head of hair popping out from behind the back of one of the armchairs almost caused the boys to scream in shock.

"I can't believe you two are actually doing this!" Hermione Granger hissed.

"Ugh, you again!" Ron moaned exasperatedly "Why can't you just mind your own business?"

"I almost told your brother you know!" Hermione said heatedly. "Someone needs to put a stop to this!"

Harry just stared at her.

"Hermione, go back to bed," he said angrily. "Come on Ron, let's go."

Harry pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed out into the corridor outside. He had hoped that Hermione would do as he said and return to the girl's dormitories. Instead she followed Ron out of the portrait hole and it swung closed behind her.

"I can't believe you two are being so selfish!" she ranted. "Do you want Slytherin to win the House Cup? If you get caught you'll make us lose all those points I got from Professor McGonagall and-"

"Granger, go away!" Ron growled.

"Fine, but don't blame me when you get caught. I'll make sure and tell Professor McGonagall that I told you both not to go and-"

Hermione abruptly halted mid-sentence. She had turned back to the portrait of the Fat Lady in order to say the password and go back to bed but the Fat Lady was not in her portrait and Hermione was now stuck outside Gryffindor Tower.

"Oh no!" She shrieked. "This is all your fault! Now I'm going to get in trouble too!"

"Our fault?" Ron repeated indignantly.

Harry, taking pity on Hermione who seemed near tears, said, "look, you'll just have to wait here until the Fat Lady comes back. She won't be gone too long."

He and Ron had just gone about halfway up the corridor when they heard her scarpering behind them. "Oh no Harry Potter, I'm coming with you," she announced.

"What?" said Ron furiously, "don't you think you've caused us enough trouble?"

"I'm not about to just stand here and wait for a Professor to find me out here alone!" Hermione glared. "At least if we're all caught together you can tell them that I was only trying to stop you."

"Are you bloody-"

"Shh!" Harry said urgently, "do you hear that?"

The three of them stood silently for a moment. There was a funny sort of shuffling noise coming from somewhere nearby.
"Do you think it's Mrs. Norris?" Ron asked worriedly.

However as they all peered into the darkness they saw that it was not Mrs. Norris at all. It was Neville Longbottom, and he was blinking sleepily at them from where he was curled up on the floor.

"Oh, finally someone came out!" He exclaimed, "I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the password."

"Neville, keep your voice down, it's almost midnight," said Harry. "The password won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm Neville?" Hermione asked.

"Um... it's fine," Neville said stretching it out to show them. "Madame Pomfrey fixed it really quickly."

Ron checked his watch. "That's great Neville but we've got to get going."

"Wait! Don't leave me here!" Neville cried grabbing onto Harry's arm. "It's really dark out here and there's already been ghosts going past."

Harry groaned. "Alright, alright but make sure you stay quiet."

The four of them crept almost silently through deserted corridors and stairways lit only by the somewhat eerie light of moon and the occasional flickering of a torch against a wall. Harry's heart was pounding in his throat. Every time he rounded a corner he expected to see Filch or Mrs. Norris waiting but it seemed that luck was on their side. They reached the third floor without incident and slipped through the open door of the trophy room. Malfoy wasn't there yet. Harry took out his wand just in case he appeared suddenly and tried a sneak attack. Several minutes later Ron spoke up.

"Do you think he chickened out?"

Just then they heard a voice from the next room. Filch's voice. Three horror-struck faces turned towards Harry who gathered the sense to wave them all as quickly and quietly as possible back through the door and into the corridor outside. They'd only just made it when they heard Filch enter the trophy room and begin to search. "They're in here hiding somewhere my sweet," he murmured to Mrs. Norris.

"I hope you realise that Malfoy tricked you," he heard Hermione hiss as they ran along the corridor and back towards the stairs. Harry shot her a glare mostly out of annoyance at the fact that she was right. They skid round a corner, running at top speed, with Harry in the lead not having any idea where they were going. He was certainly regretting leaving Gryffindor tower by that point as this particular adventure was not turning out to be quite as fun as he would had hoped. Suddenly they found themselves at a dead end. A locked door was in front of them and they could hear Filch still on their heels only a few corridors away.

"This is it," Ron moaned as he struggled with the door. "We're done for!"

"Ugh, move over!" Hermione said, shoving him away. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the lock. "Alohomora!"

With a click, the door swung open. All four of them scrambled inside and shut it. Neville promptly doubled over wheezing and the rest of them were hardly any better as they gasped for air. Harry turned to look at the room they had entered and quickly wished he hadn't. They weren't in a room at all. They were in another corridor. It wasn't just any corridor though, it was the forbidden corridor on the third floor that Dumbledore had warned all students to stay away from at the feast. Now he knew why.

Harry found himself staring into all six of the yellow, blinking eyes of an enormous three headed dog. It had evidently been asleep when they'd first entered the corridor, but now it was waking up and it's deafening growls began to rumble like thunder against the walls. He heard Ron, Hermione and Neville begin to scream. Harry himself was too shocked to do anything but gape at the monster before them. He grasped for the door nob behind them; getting caught out of bed by Filch was better than being eaten by a three headed dog. As the door fell open, the four of them dashed out, Harry slamming it shut behind them, and they raced back down the corridor and up stairs and through tapestries, hardly caring what noise they were making or if Filch was still out looking for them. They didn't stop running until they were once again in front the portrait of the Fat Lady who was, blessedly, back in her frame.

"Where on earth have you lot been?" she asked astonished by the appearance of the four panting first years.

"Don't worry about it!" Harry gasped and repeated the password urgently until she swung her portrait open. Once inside the common room, they collapsed, exhausted, into the chairs before the fire. Still trembling in shock, Ron turned to Harry.

"What is a bloody great dog like that doing locked in that corridor?!"

"Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Hermione huffed.

"Er, the floor?" Harry guessed. "Honestly I wasn't looking at it's feet. I was a bit too busy with it's heads."

"Ugh, none of you use your eyes, obviously!" Hermione snapped. "It was standing on a trapdoor."

"And...that means?" Ron said after a few seconds.

"It's obviously guarding something!" She stood, glaring angrily at them. "Now, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled." And with that, she flounced up the stairs towards the girl's dormitories.

Ron shot a bemused look in Harry's direction but he was concentrating on something Hermione had said. The dog was guarding something. He remembered the grubby package Hagrid had collected for Professor Dumbledore at Gringotts the same day of the break in. He also remembered his mother's words about that little package, 'it's something secret which must be kept very safe'. Harry was certain he had discovered the place where it was being kept. The question was, what exactly was it?

And there we go!

I always loved that last line of Hermione's...haha

I know a lot of this was highly reminiscent of the first book but I wanted to use this chapter to mainly illustrate small differences in Harry's personality from that of the orignal version and also create a bridge for the rest of the story to develop, which of course had to begin with the discovery of Fluffy and Harry and Ron's first major interaction with Hermione and Neville.

So, I hope you liked it. If you did...can I hope for a review?

On another note, who's joined Pottermore? What house are you in? Leave a review to let me know. I'm a proud Ravenclaw!