"Malfoy tricked you," she said. "It was a trap, he tipped off Filch that you were coming here!" she glared at them like it was all their fault. Well, technically, yes, but still she didn't need to come along as well.

"We've gotta go back to Gryffindor Tower as soon as possible," said Ron nervously.

"Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious," said Hermione not at all sarcastically.

"Well, what else was I supposed to say," Ron went on the defensive.

"Oh, I don't know, Ron. Just-"

Percy interrupted them. "Look, we haven't got time to fight here, we gotta get going!"

Hermione gave one last glare at Ron to indicate that she wasn't finished, then stomped off.

Harry and Percy exchanged looks, then quickly looked away again.

However, it just wasn't going to be that simple. About a half-dozen paces, and something had to happen. And that something-or rather, someone was highly unwelcome.

"Oooohhh...," said Peeves in an oily voice. "What do we have here?"

Harry frantically gestured at him to be quiet, but Peeves apparently wasn't going to shut up so easily. Oh, who am I kidding? Peeves never did what he should. He always did its exact opposite.

"Ickle Firsties," he said in an even more oily voice.

"I should inform Filch, I should," he said in a saintly voice that wasn't fooling anybody.

Ron snapped, which was a bad move. You just don't swipe at Peeves. That tends to make him very annoyed. And when Peeves is annoyed, you don't want to be nearby.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" screamed Peeves. "STUDENTS IN THE CORRIDOR!" he yelled. And he was enjoying it.

What were the six doing, then? No, they weren't just sitting around. They were running as if their lives depended on it, well actually no. Let's change that to: their respective expulsions depended on it.

At the end of the corridor, however, they ran into something that pretty much blocked them. What was it? A door. Locked, of course. It couldn't be unlocked when they needed it to be, of course.

Well, it wasn't a problem to Hermione.

"Alohomora," she said, flipping out her wand and pointing it at its lock. There was an audible click, and the door swung open.

Well. That's one benefit of paying attention in lessons.

Ron looked dumbstruck and opened his mouth, undoubtedly to ask a silly question, but it was lost in the scramble to get through the door. They piled in and pressed against the door, listening hard. Which was no mean feat, considering there were six of them. And apart from Harry, neither of them was on the skinny side. Percy thanked the Fates then(for once in his life) for returning him to the exact body he had when he first arrived at camp. Otherwise, he'd have difficulties fitting in- literally. Not to mention that if he was 17, he'd have difficulties coping with the seventh-year's coursework.

"thinks this door is locked," whispered Harry. What-oh crap. He'd tuned out again. Damn his ADHD.

He turned to ask Harry what he'd missed, but stopped short. And he had a big enough reason to do so.

Even to Percy, meetings with giant three-headed dogs were not frequent. He didn't have a thing with Cerberus or anything. That was with Mrs O'Leary, who, by the way, was much more frightening than the dog who played with balls.

But it didn't look like this dog would play with one, despite looking so similar. No, he wasn't Cerberus. Cerberus was much uglier.

All the same, Percy knew enough about dog-speak to know that the deep, thunderous growls the dog was currently making were definitely NOT friendly.

They didn't scream or anything-that was reserved for silly horror movies. Instead, they just froze. Yes, like ice.

The spell broke when the not-Cerberus heaved itself up(with difficulty, the chamber clearly wasn't designed with the dog in mind) and increased the volume of its growls. This acted as a ice-breaker as they unfroze and six pairs of hands found themselves scrambling for the doorknob. The dog's hot breath was becoming dangerously close when they finally managed to open the door and almost fall outside.

Percy was no stranger to life-and-death situations, but this was somehow... novel.

As they flew-yes, you read that right, flew-down the corridor, down more corridors, hardly stopping, barely seeing their surroundings, just wanting to be as far away as possible from that monster. Well, Percy had seen a great many worse monsters in his life, but he still classified it as a monster, even if not to be compared to Cerberus.

They didn't stop until they reached Gryffindor Tower.

"Where-have you all been!?" exclaimed the Fat Lady, looking at their sweaty bodies and unkempt clothes.

"Never mind that, pig snout, pig snout," panted Ron. With a shrug, the Fat Lady let them in.

Straightaway, they collapsed into armchairs. Well, what else would they do. That's the first thing you do after running away from a giant three-headed dog, don't you know? Well, if you didn't, now you do.

Finally, Percy broke the silence with one of his trademark sarcastic statements.

"Well, that dog needs exercise."

Harry and Ron gave nervous laughs. Hermione, however, didn't join in. She got up, brushing herself off, and gave all of them a look. Percy knew that one. The you-missed-the-important-thing-but-I-guess-you're-simply-too-dumb look.

Well, can't say there's no one like Annabeth here, anyway.

"Well, what did we miss, ma'am?" asked Percy patiently. Yes, patience is a virtue. Yup, Percy knew that. Too surprised? Too bad.

She looked slightly taken aback, but then regained her air and said," You don't use your eyes, do all of you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"No," said Percy even more patiently. It was a skill he learned with quite an amount of practice.

"A trapdoor," she said bluntly, then went off towards the girls' dormitory. Well. That put her out of commission, at least temporarily, then.

"A trapdoor..." said Ron blankly. "Why?" he asked simply.

"Because it's guarding something," answered Percy. What? He isn't totally dumb, you know. Being around Annabeth has many benefits.

"Which means..." said Harry slowly.

"What?" said Percy and Ron together.

"The package. From vault seven hundred and thirteen."

It took them a second to realize what he was talking about. Then, their eyes widened.

"Oh. My. God."

Snaps all of the tomatoes away. Hey! I have all the five Infinity Stones, you can't do anything to me! *Maniacal laughter* For those unfamilar with the MCU, it's just five stones that together can do anything together to the universe with just a snap of the fingers.

Ok, I know. I'm really sorry. I have no excuses, I know. I will-hopefully- be more frequent with updates now. I've got a idea...

Anyway, shoutout to anyone and everyone who has reviewed, followed or favorited! It's because of you that I've still got the motivation to continue writing this. Here, have an imaginary chocolate. Dark chocolate, please. It's the one that's got health benefits.

Also, shoutout to one reviewer who's been constantly reviewing, even if the reviews are not... ah, as complimentary as they might have been. You know who you are.

Now, enough!

Thanks for sticking around until here.

N.O.Y.E.S