When Ron woke up the next morning, he opened his eyes to find Harry, Seamus, Neville, and Dean crowded around his bed, inches away from his face. He yelled and scrambled back, much to the amusement of the others.

"What the-What are you all doing here?"

Seamus, barely suppressing a laugh, said, "Well, we just couldn't wait for you to get up any longer. We wanted to hear about your little adventure last night."

Ron sighed and ran a hand through his hair, giving it an interesting wind-blown look. "Right now?"

"Right now," said Harry firmly. "We let you sleep before."

Ron looked longingly toward the stairwell. "Can't I at least have some breakfast first?" he asked plaintively.

"No!"chorused all the boys. He sighed again.

"Oh alright. So Neville and I were exploring the dungeons and we got separated, which I suppose Neville told you?" They nodded.

Neville hung his head. "I'm sorry! I saw Professor Snape coming out of one of the dungeons and I just panicked and ran for it! And I was going to come and find you again, b-but I lost my way and-"

"Don't worry about it, Neville," said Harry quietly. "Cho's been found, and that's what matters. Go on, Ron."

"Right. So, I ran for it too, and I went down the staircase to the lowest level, you know? Only, the staircase turned while I was going down, and it led to this little hallway I never noticed before. I think it usually pretends to be a wall or something," he mused. Harry cleared his throat loudly.

"Anyhow...?" he said meaningfully. Ron rolled his eyes.

"Anyhow, I lit my wand and went down the hallway. At first, I didn't think I was going to find anything-it just looked like more dungeons, you know? It was really dusty, too. Looked like nobody had been down there in a long time. I was just about to turn around when I peeked into one of the dungeons, and..." he paused theatrically.

"What?" they cried. Neville leaned in so far that he tripped over Ron's trunk and crashed to the floor. "I'm alright, go ahead," he said weakly from the floor. As Dean and Seamus helped him up, Ron said quietly, "and there she was. Lying there on the floor. Sleeping peacefully. No chains, nothing. But when I try to go in, something shocked me and threw me back. Singed my clothes and everything. I think that must have set off an alarm, too, because I heard footsteps coming right after that. So I ran all the way back up to the seventh floor to tell you."

"Blimey!" said Seamus, awed. "No wonder you were so tired!"

"You think?" Ron rolled his eyes. "Some people," he muttered.

"Something shocked you?" asked Dean. "Like a force field?"

"That could be it. A little unusual, but that could be it. I sure wouldn't put it past Umbridge," said Harry, getting excited.

Neville raised his hand. "Umm...Harry...what's a force field?"

"Well, it's a Muggle thing. You run electricity across an area, and then if you touch it, you get shocked, just like that." Dean snapped his fingers.

Neville still had his hand in the air. "But Harry...I thought that Muggle things can't work in Hogwarts-too much magic or something...?"

"'Course not, Neville, that's..." Seamus started to say. "Blimey...he's right, in'ne? Neville-you did somethin' right! Way to go, mate!"

"Yes, well done, Neville," said Dean, a little cross that his idea had come to nothing. "Well, if you're so smart, what do you think we ought to do?"

Neville gulped. "Well," he said slowly, looking around at the faces staring at him. "Well, I-I think we should...er...ask Hermione!"

The boys all stared at each other. "Neville..." said Ron in disbelief. "You're having quite the day, aren't you?"

Harry stood up so fast that he hit his head on the top on Ron's fourposter. "Let's go!"

The boys all charged for the spiral staircase-all except Ron, who was still in his pajamas. "Hey, guys-wait! Wait up!" Seeing that no one was paying him even the slightest attention, Ron gave up and went back to bed.

A.N: Hello, all! Due to some interesting coincidence, I have had this written for some time but neglected to post it...not sure how that happened. I do apologize for the shortness and the lateness of this chapter. Now that school's starting, I should have more time to do this, as backwards as that sounds. As for length...I'll try to make it up to you in the next chapter. Summer's been crazy. But anyway, I'd like to thank anyone who's read this far-you don't know what it means to me.

Also, if anyone has a brilliant and better idea for a title for this, I'm really not fond of the one I have right now. I definitely welcome all suggestions, so if you've got something incredible, please help me out!

I've kind of given up on my poll, but if you want to go vote, I would be very happy. Thanks again for reading, and please review!