Disclaimer: All characters and plot from the Harry Potter Series belong to J.K. Rowling. All references to other characters from other fictional sources belong to their respected authors. Vitani, Chell, Mordecai, etc. belong to moi.

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That night after dinner there was an intervention in the common room.

"Why the hell did you lie about Malfoy being pelted by that Remembrall? You got us all in trouble! Whose side are you on anyway?!" questioned Pansy. She was pacing back and forth in front of Vitani, who was sitting in one of the straight-backed chairs. The rest of the Slytherins were behind Pansy, looking very much like an audience at a trial.

"I didn't lie, he wasn't attacked by the Remembrall," she said calmly.

"Liar! We were there, we saw it, it chased Draco all the way to the forest!"

"Then you all need to have your eyes checked," she said, and the first years grumbled.

"Oh, okay, so what do you think happened?"

"He was being stung by a bee."

Pansy and the other Slytherins were silent, then-

"Are you a fool?! Do you expect us to believe that crap? That's the worst excuse I've ever-"

At that moment Draco cried "ouch!" and clapped a hand to his check, wincing. Everyone turned to him concerned.

"What happened Draco?" worried Daphne, putting a hand on Malfoy's hand.

"A bee just stung me."

And as everyone looked at his stung face a bee buzzed by above them all.

"There it is!"

The bee made another attempt to sting Malfoy and then flew away from the students, who tried swatting the insect. It flew away through the open door.

"Maybe it really was a bee that attacked Malfoy earlier," said Daphne.

"You were eating those sweets at breakfast," said Zabini. "It was probably attracted to your face from the sugar."

"Maybe…" pondered Malfoy. "I couldn't really see it, I was covering my face…"

"Alright, so maybe it was a bee, but that doesn't explain that voice we heard," Pansy deliberated.

"I think that might have been Peeves; it sounded like him," said Tracey.

"That wouldn't be the first time Peeves used insects to plague the students," said a burly sixth year. "He once dumped a whole bucket of roaches on a girl's head three years ago.

The Slytherins all began to mutter and ponder this information, but Pansy was not satisfied.

"That still doesn't explain why you lied to Hooch about Malfoy being a attacked, even if it was by a bee. Why didn't you say that to her?"

Vitani looked toward the floor and forced herself to blush. After a moment when she still didn't answer Pansy's question, Pansy said, "Well?"

Still she didn't answer, and bit her bottom lip. Then she murmured slowly, "I-I was worried about his reputation."

"What?" All the Slytherins looked very confused.

"I mean, Malfoy has a reputation to keep up… we all do… for the noble house of Slytherin," now her head was up, but her eyes were to the ground. "I just thought, well, it would look bad if Malfoy got defeated by an insect…"

It was a risky plan, very risky, but she knew it would work. No matter how pathetic the excuse (and this excuse was terrible) if it came to protecting the honor of the Slytherin house, they would all do anything- even believe this bull.

The Slytherins began conversing with each other again like a jury. After a few moments, a third year chuckled "That is pretty pathetic, being chased by a bee." The first domino had fallen, and soon the whole house was snickering and full on laughing at Malfoy's humiliation. Malfoy's face turned a lovely tomato red, and he buried his head in his hands. Even Pansy was giggling slightly, but when she looked at Malfoy she sobered up.

"Well, I'm sorry we, I, doubted you DeVera."

I'm sorry you're all such self-absorbed morons. You'd have to be pretty stupid to believe all that bull. "No, no, you had every right to be suspicious."

The Slytherins broke up from their gathering and went to their pastimes. Malfoy and Pansy went to the Hospital wing to check Malfoy's face. Vitani left the common room and went to a bathroom near the entrance to the Entrance Hall. Inside was a small bee on one of the taps.

"Good work Akane; I hope none of them hurt you," she whispered as the bee transformed into a fox. The fox had its teeth pulled back in almost a grin, and shook its head.

"Come on, let's snag some snacks before we go to bed."

Akane transformed to a cat and hopped on to her shoulder. They made their way through the labyrinth of halls until they came to the food portrait-filled hallway. She walked up to the fruit bowl painting, tickled the pear and the canvas opened to the kitchen. She had visited frequently in the past couple days since her discovery, and the small creatures were always happy to accommodate her.

They were called house elves, they told her, and they worked at Hogwarts, manning the kitchen and cleaning the castle at night. Though she was very shocked and upset to hear that they worked without pay, she saw they were very, very happy to wait on the castle for the satisfaction of a job well done. She did not question them, instead she wrote a letter to her father asking about the elves. He explained that for the longest time, elves were friendly creatures that liked to be helpful to other creatures and lived off the emotions of satisfaction and happiness. So they were employed by wizards and thus named 'house elves'. However, as time went on, some wizards began to mistreat the elves and work them as slaves. Elves are not as weak and stupid as some wizards think, they began to find loopholes and mess up their master's orders. They could get very nasty if they felt they had to, otherwise they were just very friendly creatures.

Vitani took some cake and bits of chicken for Akane and retired to the common room. She didn't want to eat in her bed, so she sat near the fire, staring into the warm orange haze.

She was startled awake from a creaking door and realized she had fallen asleep on the couch. She looked up and then immediately ducked down again as she saw Crabbe step from the boy's dormitory. Then she heard a grunt and a voice she recognized all to well.

"What the heck are you doing Crabbe?"

"Trophy room," he grunted.

"You idiot, I only said I'd duel him to get Potter expelled!" Malfoy whispered harshly. "Come on, come back to the dormitory with me." They both left, Malfoy creeping and Crabbe lumbering. When they were gone she lifted her head to stare at the common room door.

I guess Potter wouldn't be that stupid to get himself caught, right? She thought about it for a minute and decided that, no, Harry wouldn't probably be stupid enough but he would be too headstrong to ignore the challenge.

I'm going to have to go and stop him aren't I?

She got up and Akane looked up at her from her place on the couch. When she saw her human companion walking toward the door she stretched and followed her. She jumped on to Tani's shoulders and instantly became a long black cloak.

"Nice Akane."

She crept up from the dungeons, blending into the shadows when she saw someone approach. After sneaking from shadow to shadow she finally came upon the trophy room, the gold and silver awards glinting in the soft moonlight. No one was there.

Well, maybe I was wrong…she then heard a group of whispers, coming from the second entrance, … or not.

She turned and ducked into the darkest corner of the room, pulling the cloak tight around her. The group could not see her, but she could see them. She had been right; Harry was here along with Ron and oddly, Hermione and Neville. She thought Hermione would never condone this midnight walk, and Neville would be too frightened by the dark castle. Harry and Ron crept closer, peering into the room but Hermione stood rigid in the doorway.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

"He was never coming to begin with," Vitani said as she stepped from the shadows.

"What are you doing here?" whispered Harry and Neville.

"I'm here to tell you that Malfoy wouldn't dare risk his neck when he can just manipulate you," she began, "which I can't believed actually worked, but, what's done is done. Try not to be so gullible next time and get back to the Gryffindor common room before Filch finds you."

"That git!" whispered Ron harshly.

"I told you," said Hermione, "now you're all going to get us in trouble.

"You're like a broken record, you know that?" spat Ron.

"Quiet!" hushed Vitani.

There was a noise in the next room over and then a dusty voice rasped out "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Vitani and Harry looked at each other, Ron silently cursed and Neville squeaked. Hermione's face instantly changed from snooty outrage to sheer terror. Vitani waved them to follow her through the back entrance of the trophy room and into the corridors. 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."

"Come on, around here!" she mouth to them and led them around the winding halls. Filch was still getting closer. At a ferocious sneeze by Filch, Neville 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.

The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

"Run!" cried Harry, and they all trampled after him except Vitani, who melted into the shadowed corners in the hall and whispered "Akane, turn into Peeves!"

And there he was, floating above her head. On her command, Akane-Peeves began to cackle wildly and swoop up and all around the corridor, rattling the remaining coats of armor. Filch spotted the Peeves doppelganger immediately and swerved from his path, chasing Peeves rather than the Gryffindors. When Akane had led him far enough away, Vitani darted from the shadows and up after the group, hoping that was the last close call they'd have tonight.

She finally found them in a dead end hallway, all of them gasping for breath and Hermione hissing, "Malfoy tricked you, 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."

"Don't worry about that now, I've got Filch plenty distracted back near the trophy room. Just get yourselves back up to your dormitory before something else comes," she urged them.

But it just 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, the real Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.

"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."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please," begged Hermione.

"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, taking a swipe at Peeves.

It would have been a disaster, but as Peeves was about to shout out into the night, a second Peeves came through the walls above them. The two Peeves stared at each other for quite awhile. Vitani thought they might have escaped capture. Yet it seemed this spelled disaster as well, for when the real Peeves finally recovered from seeing his double, he screamed, "Doppleganger! Copycat! Body snatcher! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The Gryffindors ducked under Peeves, as Akane transformed into a cat and fell on to Vitani's shoulders. As they ran for their lives, Ron gasped, "how can his body be snatched if he's a ghost?"

"Is this really the time to be asking that?!" Hermione snapped.

They ran right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door - and it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

They could hear footsteps approaching, Filch was trying to catch up with Peeves.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"

A turn and a click and the door swung open and they toppled in, slamming the door behind them. They could hear Filch's stomping toward Peeves, who was still screeching about his doppelganger.

"I've got you this time Peeves, you're going to be exorcized from this school for this ruckus!"

"Noisy, noisy; spooky, spooky. Filch and Peevesy both gone kooky!"

"Will you shut it Peeves!"

"You let the ickle firsties get away with Peevesy's twinsy!"

"What? First years? Where are they Peeves?!"

"Say 'please.'"

"You damn poltergeist, where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"Merlin! Fine - please."

"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing and stomping off in rage. Slowly the sounds faded away.

But their was another, more harsh sound now coming behind them; Vitani turned to meet the largest eyes she had ever seen, from a creature she thought only existed in the underworld. It was a gigantic, black Hellhound, looking very much like the guardian of Hades, Cerberus. It easily towered over them, their heads not even reaching to the great beast's chest. It was breathing heavily from its three mouths, in shock of intruders or desire of fresh meat, she didn't know.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered, unknown of the nightmare in back of them. "I think we'll be okay - get off, Neville!" Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute, trying desperately to attract Harry to the more troubling concern at hand. "What?"

Finally Harry was aware of the tremendous dog behind them. They all stared in horrid awe and a thought came to Vitani. They had just entered from the third corridor, the forbidden corridor, and now she knew why. Yet in that horrible moment of clarity came another small, more intriguing discovery. The beast was chained to this place that was in fact another corridor rather than some sort of room, and it was sitting on something plated, something separate from the floor. A trap door?"

She couldn't ponder the beast's presence in the school any longer; it had finally made a decision after its initial shock, to consume. The three heads snapped their jaws at them and in a flash the group toppled through the door and did a headlong sprint to the Gryffindor tower. From down the hallway Harry shouted, "Pig snout! Pig snout!" and the Fat Lady, grumbling, swung forward for them to dive into the common room. They lied there on the carpet for a long time; the only sounds were their heavy panting and the crackle of the dying fire.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" panted Ron. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" Hermione snapped. It gave Vitani déjà vu. "Didn't you see what it was standing on."

"The floor?" Harry 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."

The first one to push herself up off the floor was Hermione. She dusted herself off, still looking pale but agitated as well.

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Expulsion is worse than death… just what the hell did your parents bring you up to be? Does she think they can't expel her if she's dead?

"No, we don't mind," Ron muttered as they watched Hermione leave for the girl's dormitory. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

"She's got a point though," said Vitani. "They wouldn't keep that hellhound there for nothing."

"You know what that thing was?" asked Harry incredulously.

"My sister has one…"

"WHAT!"

"No, no, I mean… they don't usually get that big… all the hellhounds they sell in shops are usually miniature, they only get to be the size of a Great Dane. This one must have been bought illegally or something. Breeders aren't allowed to sell classic Hellhounds for, well, obvious reasons. But that's not the point," she said, shaking her head, "that beast isn't there to scare students and that trapdoor isn't there for it to sit on. That dog is guarding something very, very important."

"Well, whatever it is, it'll be staying right where it is; no one's getting past that thing," said Ron.

Harry and Ron started walking up to the boy's dormitory. Neville, who had been silent for the entire time finally spoke, "What are you going to do Vitani?"

She looked up at the clock on the wall; it was 1:30 a.m.

"I'm going to crash here, if that's alright?"

"It's not like I can stop you," he said, grinning a little.

He left her and Akane to the dormitory. She sat near the fire and curled herself on one of the soft armchairs. It was cramped but it could have been worse. She was use to sleeping like this. At least this time she would be warm.