Here's the next chapter (as well as the one after that, which is somewhat short). There won't be any other updates for...around two months, I think.

Chapter 9

Draco wandered the halls, staring at the picture of Primroses in his left hand. It was late at night and he should be in bed right now, he knew, but he didn't feel up to it. His mother was feeling desperate, so he deduced that something worrying must be afoot. Perhaps word had reached his parents of his supposed telling-off of the Slytherins?

"What are you doing out here so at this time of night, Malfoy?" asked Granger's voice. He jumped, and looked around. Potter, Weasley, Longbottom, and Granger herself were peering at him from behind the statue of a humpbacked witch.

"I couldn't sleep," Draco ground out. The girl approached and looked at the piece of parchment in his grasp. "Did you draw this? It's really well done."

He snorted. "What would I draw flowers for? Mother's the artist."

"I think you should come with us." Potter interrupted, checking their surroundings. "Or else you might get caught by Filch."

Weasley grabbed at the boy's arm. "What're you talking about, Harry? This is Malfoy!" Beside them, Longbottom bobbed his head empathetically.

Potter rolled his eyes. "Look here — he got Sorted into Gryffindor, didn't he? So he must be alright."

Weasley mumbled, "Wouldn't be too sure about that…"

"C'mon, we're wasting time here. you wouldn't want Zabini to get there before us, would you Ron?" The redhead grumbled, but let the matter pass.

"Zabini?" Draco asked Granger as they walked. "What happened?"

"He challenged those two idiots—" she nodded her head at Potter and Weasley— "to a midnight duel." The girl shook her head in strong disapproval and muttered "Boys!" under her breath. She didn't say anything about why Longbottom wasn't asleep in the dormitories, so he presumed that the Gryffindor had forgotten the password into the Common Room.

The trophy room was empty. Potter and Weasley walked around, looking around and under all the cases and not finding a thing. They were wondering aloud about the posibility of Zabini being late (or turning out to be a coward) when they heard Flich's voice. Apparently the Slytherins had tipped the duo off.

Everyone ran into the armour gallery, then through a door into another hallway, and so on. They were close by the Charms classroom when Peeves the poltergeist spotted and tipped the students off with a yell. And so they had no choice but to run again; they stopped at the end of the corridor. The door in front of them was locked.

When they heard Filch heading towards them, Weasley started moaning and Longbottom started trembling like mad. Granger rolled her eyes. She pushed the boys out of the way, snatched Potter's wand, and said "Alohomora!" The door opened and they ran inside, shutting it quickly. They listened in relief as Filch shouted at Peeves, who riled the man up instead. Then Longbottom drew their attention to the creature, a dog with three heads, standing in the middle of the room.

A Cereberus! He'd read about them in a book on Magical Creatures. Draco stepped forward, ignoring Granger and the others who were telling him to get away from the monster. He started to sing, softly at first.

The beast, who had gotten up and was ready to bark at them, settled down on the stone floor once more. There were gasps behind him. "Woah," said Weasley. "What did you do to it, Malfoy?" The towhead rolled his eyes, continuing the song.

Everyone stared as the creature laid all three heads on the ground and closed its eyes. Soon afterwards, gentle snoring could be heard in the room. Draco gestured for Granger and the others to go. He turned back to the dog.

When he was sure that the creature was asleep, he slowly stepped back and got out of the room. He closed the door and leaned against it, sighing in relief.

"What happened back there, Malfoy?" asked Potter. "What was that, anyway?"

Draco looked about him. Good— Filch was nowhere in sight. "That was a cereberus, Potter. It goes to sleep when someone plays music to it." He paused, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I suppose it's the reason Dumbledore warned us against coming into this corridor."

All walked in silence up the Gryffindor Tower and through the portrait. When they entered the Common Room, Weasley sank into an armchair with relief. "That was a close one, right Harry?" He nodded at Draco. "Good thing Malfoy here knew what to do." Everyone murmured their thanks.

Granger, who had been silently fuming for some reason, huffed. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Potter suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."

This caughe Draco's interest. "What, really?"

Granger scowled and got to her feet. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves."she said to Potter and Weasley. "We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

"Why would getting expelled be worse than getting killed?" Draco wondered aloud. Why'd someone choose death over getting kicked out of school?

"Your wand gets broken and you're forbidden to use magic." said Potter.

"What's so terrible about that?" His mind was filled with images of the 'telly' and horseless carriages and the Muggle books in his trunk. Three sets of eyes stared at him. He hastily faked a cough. "Er… it's getting late now. Let's call it a day." He waved at them and shuffled off to the dormitory.

Some of the sentences (or phrases) were copied, word for word, straight out of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; they were all from page 120.