"Spoken dialogue or signs"

'Thought'

flashback/''dialogue"/'thought'

Hope you enjoy this chapter!


Catalyst

Several days after his impromptu meeting with Tracy Davis, during breakfast, Harry got 3 separate letters saying the same thing that he'd been seeing since that day.

"Leave Ms. Greengrass alone or action shall be taken to the Ministry of Magic and you'll face trial for harassment of a member of an ancient and noble house."

Maybe he really should but curiosity was really killing the cat within him. What was the reason behind her emotions? Her constant stony expression was easy to discern but he wasn't sure why and he wanted to know. Harry wasn't sure why he wanted to know either but something was compelling him to do so. He shook his head.

The increasing chatter in the hall also forced Harry to stash away the letters to address the other issue at hand. The long, thinly wrapped package that had been held above the Slytherin table by a flock of eagle owls. 'This must be a broom for my seeker trial, maybe I'll get to keep it if I'm put on the team.' He held his hands up and the owls released their talons, dropping the package into them.

"Open it up, Potter, let's see what object a poor wretch has deigned unsightly enough to give to you!" some second year Slytherins jeered. Ignoring them as always, Harry read the attached note.

"Open it up, here or in private, it doesn't matter. You'll be allowed to keep this so long as you make the team and your performance is exemplary. Seeker trials are on Saturday - Professor S. Snape." Harry didn't care, he had dealt with his infamous status of the Boy-Who-Lived as a Slytherin in more ways than one for several weeks now, he could only imagine that life at the castle would continue to be like this until he left. Ripping it off in a single motion, the paper revealed a broomstick, the latest hot topic model of the Nimbus series, the Nimbus 2000.

The Great Hall's loud chatter slowly fell to a hush as everyone who was watching began to understand what Harry had just received. Several faces throughout the hall began to redden in anger, particularly from the students. 'I don't have much experience but there seems to be more bias from them than in the non-magical world, and that's saying something,' Harry thought.

"Why does Potter have a broom?! It's against the rules for first years!" Ron shouted from across the hall. "He should've been expelled! That's what Madam Hooch said!"

Many of the students in the Hall agreed and cried for justice but Madam Hooch stood up and with a bang from the end of her wand, silenced the crowd.

"Under normal circumstances, yes, I would've requested for Mr. Potter's immediate expulsion, however he did not harm himself nor others and even showed skill, according to all in that flying lesson, that seems unrivaled by all I've ever taught here at Hogwarts. Mr. Potter, from what I understand from my fellow colleagues, is at the top of his class in every class taught at his year. I think it would be a shame to turn away one of the brightest wizards just because of an incident like that. If more problems had occurred as a result of the flying lesson incident, things may have been different but here we are. If you wish to discuss this more I suggest taking it up with your head of house or the headmaster."

A lot of the students resigned to grumbling and dirty looks but after Madam Hooch's words, no one felt like trying to argue the fact. Though Ron and the majority of the Gryffindor table looked like they wanted to argue more.

Harry decided to just leave and so he got up to go put his new Nimbus away in his dorm, leaving amidst the whispering students and continually disapproving glares of the more expressive professors and students. Once he left the Great Hall, he turned in the direction of the dungeons and began walking at a brisk pace. Though he had no real enemies yet, in a world where power was more easily accessible, one could never be too careful. Maybe Harry was paranoid but he took it upon himself to put a few small spells here and there as well as a few simple runes that he'd learned in his prior studies and at the library that made it difficult for any unpracticed witch or wizard to access. He would upgrade the spells and runes used in time but there was no need at the moment.

Harry was just about to reach the door to the Slytherin common room when he could've sworn he felt someone watching him but not from any particular direction. "Hello?" He called out. He took control of the magic he was releasing and condensed the energy within a few meters around him. He found nothing. Harry continued condensing the energy he was using as a radar until it was well up to 50 feet but still the only thing he detected were a few insects and rats hiding in the crevices of the castle. He let go of the energy and it dispersed away like a light breeze of air but he could still feel his connection to the magic that was his. There was also something else but it was so faint it was barely noticeable even when he focused. He would figure it out later but it was time for classes.

Seeker Trials that evening.

"Alright, listen up! There's too many of you as usual so this is how we'll be doing this: You all will be playing a free-for-all style match in which all of you will attempt to catch the single snitch we'll be releasing within an hour. If you fail, the person who was closest in their attempt to catching the snitch will be made seeker and the rest of the top 3 applicants will practice as reserve members in case anyone is ever incapacitated," Marcus Flint, captain of Slytherin team said to Harry and the 8 others standing beside him. "Since we still have our seeker from last year, Terence Higgs, he'll be staying behind for a minute while you'll be looking for the snitch, you're all new so it's not likely that it'll matter. Also, from what I've heard of you and how you got here in spite of you being in first year, Potter, you'll also be staying behind for two minutes. We don't make things fair for other teams, so I'll expect rough play from all of you to get you used to the practice, understand? If it gets too out of hand, I'll step in" As he finished this, he snickered at Harry and nodded at Higgs who nodded back.

The 9 seeker applicants including Harry nodded, albeit not confidently. Harry and Higgs stood off to the side while the 7 others mounted their brooms and waited for Marcus to give the signal. There was a small crowd of Slytherin students throughout the stadium. Harry could tell that the audience wasn't helping with the confidence of the younger applicants that were second years.

On his mark, Marcus release the snitch and counted silently. Meanwhile, Harry noticed Higgs attempt to cast some magic on his broom so Harry silently cast the spell 'Sorbui' and as Higgs let off his spell, it didn't make much of an effect but Harry felt the spell that Higgs cast turn into raw magical energy and mix with his own, increasing his continually growing energy. Higgs seemed to not notice anything wrong with his spell and turned to watch the 7 others attempt to look for the snitch.

Marcus blew his whistle and Higgs kicked off. Higgs wasn't spending much energy by zooming around the quidditch pitch, but rather looking around in a semi-random pattern, for any tell-tale sign of the golden ball. Harry wouldn't cheat for this, though it'd be so easy to. He wouldn't let his power get to his head

Marcus blew his whistle again and Harry kicked off and immediately noticed a glint of something shiny near the opposite end of the pitch and so he decided to head in that direction while still looking as if he noticed nothing.

However about halfway to his destination, the glint disappeared and he looked down and noticed that Marcus Flint was grinning almost sinisterly. Harry flew up higher above everybody else and cleared his mind. Harry maintained constant watch in case anyone broke off to dive or otherwise moved differently from their current pattern.

For several minutes, he watched as three of the applicants separately from their normal path in some direction but only for a few seconds because of something they had noticed and then slowed their speed, but continuing in the same direction while others made to follow just in case. Harry had yet to see the snitch with any of these break offs.

At one point, Higgs noticed the snitch and Harry made to follow, diving down from his position and swerved around two of the others only to get cut off by a third and Higgs nearly crashed into the stadium because he wasn't fully paying attention as he was starting to get confused and was looking at Harry with a worried expression on his face. After forty minutes passed with several chases and cut offs almost resulting in being hit, Harry grew a little impatient and also broke off from his usual position, scanning his eyes every which way. Higgs noticed what Harry was doing and made to follow him loosely.

Something in the air started to feel different to Harry and so he turned around to look. At the other end of the pitch, Harry noticed the snitch fluttering above the shoulder of one of the other applicants but hadn't yet noticed the ball. Harry turned to the side and sped off, startling two of the others who were following him, Higgs watched Harry swerve away from the side of the stadium at the last second and picked up incredible speed. Noticing where Harry was looking, Higgs positioned himself like an arrow and shot forward, the others attempted to follow but were not nearly fast enough. Harry and Higgs ended up neck and neck while the one with the snitch floating around him panicked and dived out of the way of their approach. Higgs was nearly ahead of him so Harry decided to do something very very audacious. He positioned himself so while Higgs got ahead of him, he was now in a position to execute the maneuver that could lead to his death: Dive off his broom and catch the snitch in mid-air.

He shouted at Higgs who had been distracted by Harry's Nimbus not being affected by his spell and so he jumped enough for Harry to get a single second to jump and jump he did. Everyone on the pitch shouted at this. Harry caught the snitch at the highest point of his jump but then he began to fall. A few of the other applicants tried to reach him to save him, including the one who dived earlier, but they didn't react in time. The world around him flipped and tumbled about and the speed of his fall kept increasing and he couldn't force out a sound.

Harry fearing the worst remembered the single flying lesson from Madam Hooch's class that all the first years attended. He shouted, "UP!" while thrusting his hand out. A wave of magic pulsed out from Harry and his falling Nimbus straightened out and zoomed passed all the other seeker applicants and into his hand. At just a few meters above the ground, Harry managed to right himself up and narrowly avoided smashing into the ground and dying a premature death. Harry opened his hand to reveal the snitch safely within his hand. Marcus Flint sighed and shook his head before flying over to Harry and the others all descended around him.

"That was insane Potter!"

"Where did you learn to do that?!"

"That was incredible!"

Praises and questions from the others excluding Higgs and Flint hit Harry like a river from the seven other seeker applicants, looking not at all dejected for having lost the snitch to Harry.

Harry said nothing but nodded towards them all, Flint then decided to break himself out of his shock and shouted at them to be quiet. "Alright, looks like Potter caught the snitch and as insane as it was, don't do that again Potter, I can't have my team killing themselves on my watch, alright? You're the new seeker, I'll let you know what our schedule is like. Everyone else excluding Higgs, we still have yet to find a third back-up because you were all terrible, not the worst but not good either, try again, I'll be throwing the quaffle at you and you'll have to try to catch it among yourselves. Higgs, Potter, go clean up and leave."

Higgs and Harry walked to the locker room in silence. They changed in silence and as they headed back to the castle, Higgs turned to Harry and sighed. "That was insane, Potter, are you sure you're not a Gryffindor?"

"Not even close to one," Harry replied. Higgs nodded and they walked along in silence. "But traits from all houses are present in all of us, some are just stronger than others."

The days that followed the Slytherin seeker trials were rather quiet. Aside from Professor Snape and the other Slytherin students, no one else in the castle, not even the portraits or ghosts knew of what transpired. All anyone knew was that people were starting to talk to Harry. Now people mostly stopped cursing his placement in Slytherin and theorized about the events of the trials, trying to figure out what happened but every Slytherin kept their mouth shut and Snape refused to give anything away to the other teachers, subtly smirking at Minerva McGonagall whenever quidditch was brought up.

The next Monday after the trials, Harry felt a twinge of pain from his chest but it didn't really feel like it came from his heart but rather something deeper. He wasn't sure why he felt any pain, he was in great shape after all. Quidditch practice and his exercises early in the morning allowed for that. The moment passed though, so Harry thought nothing of it again until it returned later on similar to an itch. Perhaps it was the loneliness he was feeling. He'd barely managed to say more than a hello to Allison over the last few weeks and only barely talked to Hermione once or twice ever since the flying lesson incident.

There was also a set of moments with Hermione that he wished to address, there was a story circulating about how she was acting in her classes. Though she was incredibly intelligent and hard working and kind in almost every other aspect, she was condescending to a fault in classes whenever a new concept was introduced. That was what he was able to surmise based on the few whispers he had heard, though he never really noticed during their potions class due to how quickly he had managed to finish everything and left.

Harry began to analyze how the other Gryffindors acted around Hermione. Though most tended to be cordial enough while they were forced to be close to her, they also kept their distance whenever they could and Harry saw the loneliness evident on her face when she thought no one was looking.

Allison had the opposite issue. No one in Ravenclaw at her year seemed to want to leave her alone. 'They act so much like Hufflepuffs, it's almost adorable, but I want to talk to her,' Harry thought. Harry felt like he was going to be able to solve two problems, especially when during lunch, Allison blew up.

"Can you all leave me alone?! You're smothering me, I have no space to myself! You're all acting like I'm about to be mauled the moment I go around a corner! Why are you like this?!" She screamed. With this noise, the attention of the hall was completely on her.

Harry turned around to look at what was going on as well.

"But we're just protecting you! We know you have a connection with him!" A fellow first year Ravenclaw said back. Though there was no name specified, the tone as well as the jerking of her head in his general direction made it quite clear who this girl was referencing. Harry. "Who knows what he'll do to coerce you to the dark side? Think about it! How did he get onto the Slytherin team as a first year?! Obviously dark magic! Why else is he in Slytherin?!"

Harry would've made to defend himself but Allison beat him to it.

"I've said again and again, you just won't listen to me! Harry is a good person! You haven't lived with him nor have any of you bothered to get to know him! You don't know what he's like, so why judge? So what if he's in Slytherin?! That doesn't mean he's evil or a traitor! If you actually believe that, you're delusional and need to get a grip, now leave me alone!" Allison picked up her bag and moved to sit by Harry. The upper year Ravenclaws clapped and the mood among several Slytherins brightened considerably. The rest of the hall were shocked that anyone would defend Harry, after all, he hadn't done anything to defend himself either.

"Thanks for that, I've been wanting to talk to you for ages but I could never find a good time with your posse around," Harry whispered to Allison.

"I kind of wish you did, maybe they would be too scared to be around me after that," Allison whispered back. She also remembered the silence and the attention was still on them. "Oh hello, I'm Allison Taylor, nice to meet you!"

This galvanized the rest of the Great Hall into motion again. McGonagall spoke up. "Ms. Taylor, that's the Slytherin table, please move back to the Ravenclaw table or you'll face punishment."

This is when Harry finally spoke up to the Hall. "Are you sure about that professor? When has that been a rule? I may be a lowly Slytherin, traitor to my parents, or so you all believe, but even I believe in fairness. Where in the book does it say it's not allowed? Or will you punish a student just for wanting to sit with a friend or meet new people?"

Minerva almost wanted to object but she sat down, somewhat fuming.

"The boy's right, Minerva, there is no such rule," Dumbledore spoke calmly, his electric blue eyes twinkling. "Please, calm yourself."

Harry looked over at Ron and saw him red and ready to burst, but Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas tried to calm him down. They were successful, albeit barely and Ron resumed pigging out on the feast.

Though the occupants of the Great Hall reigned in their shock, it still definitely consumed the tables. Gryffindors whispering, Hufflepuffs whispering, Ravenclaws pondering to themselves, and Slytherins reacted differently altogether.

"Why is a mudblood here? Go back to your dirt hole where you came from, filth."

"And why is she a mudblood? Because she came from a Muggle family? What's wrong with that? She's not "pure" enough for you purebloods? I'm half muggle-born half-pure blood also known as a half blood yet you all have accepted me after the Slytherin trials so what's different? Is it because I proved myself? That doesn't really make sense to me. No one in this school really acts like they have the traits of their house, so I don't know why you think you're better than everyone else just because of who you were born from and what house you're in. That is all I'll say, now leave us alone or I will actually break some rules." Harry said the final sentence to any Slytherin who thought of trying to force the issue, showing his dark red Faerie wand, radiating power, as a warning. That effectively shut up the more vocal Slytherins who were paying attention the entire time while the older students just shrugged and continued to eat in silence. Some of the Slytherin students seemed like they were more relaxed than before, happier, even.

"Well, that was something, thanks Harry," Allison uttered in a hushed tone.

"You did say you wanted them scared," Harry chuckled softly in reply.

"Hopefully we'll get more time together now, I did want to make new friends, speaking of which, who's that girl over there? Isn't she the friend of the one you were staring at?" Allison nudged towards the brown-haired Tracy Davis, she didn't seem at all mad that I was Muggle-born.

"That girl's name is Tracy Davis, she warned me to stay away from the girl she's talking to right now, though she said it in a horrified way, very dramatically and now I want to know even more."

Allison just hummed a quick little tune.

"What is it?"

"Oh nothing, I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later," Allison gave a small smile.

"Come on, tell me!" Harry whispered back, curious.

"Nope, this is something for you to figure out on your own, you'll never get anywhere otherwise. It builds character, at least that's what mom said once," Allison whispered back, adamantly denying Harry's request.

"I have seven years including this one, provided nothing goes wrong, I'll have plenty of time to figure things out," Harry sighed back dramatically.

"I'm sure you will," Allison smiled sweetly. "We all will."

Those few minutes in the Great Hall changed a thing or two for Harry. For one thing, people didn't block him off from going a certain way in the castle, the other thing being that if he were to walk by, people wouldn't look and talk about him in a dark manner. Instead it was more curious whispers, still wary and dark but no longer pure venom in their eyes, though in the books of Ron and a surprisingly big group of other Gryffindor students, being a Slytherin meant that they were also evil. 'Looks like some people are less open to change or new ideas than others,' Harry thought wonderingly. 'What would it take to open their minds?'

He was also able to approach Allison without a problem now and if there was, she would just glare at them and they would step aside. Harry also wanted to see what was the deal with Hermione's alienation within Gryffindor but he had yet to find the right time to approach her and when he did, he was rebuffed by the Gryffindor students which confused him, though they still continued to ignore her they were now guarding her?. He wouldn't brush them aside forcefully because that could lead to some unintended consequences that he didn't want to deal with. About the fortieth time, several weeks later, Ron finally stepped up.

"What's your deal, Potter?" Ron spat angrily, grabbing Harry by the neck of his robes and pushing him against the corridor wall, "Why are you trying to mess with our house? Trying to talk to Hermione these last few weeks so that you can corrupt her with your dark magic so that it would in turn corrupt us?" The other Gryffindor students cheered Ron on.

Harry was so flabbergasted by this that his mask nearly broke from the stupidity of the words Ron shouted at him. "No, actually, I want to talk to Hermione for another reason and if you and all your friends really believe this, Mr. Weasley, then I'd really like you to think about the possibility of that happening with a first year student, no matter what house they're in. I suppose what Ms. Taylor said in the Great Hall weeks ago didn't change your mind about me at all." The Gryffindors started to interject.

"She's obviously in on it, corrupted by your magic!"

"Are you calling us stupid? You Slytherin git!"

"It is possible! Dumbledore himself was a genius at our age!"

"Bollocks! I know what you can do it because I saw it during flying lessons. Everyone knows. And even though we weren't there, how else did you get onto the Slytherin Quidditch team? You're never talking to Hermione if it's the last thing that I do!" Ron shouted, enraged.

"Are you suggesting we duel each other?" Harry asked quietly. "You realize that without proper permission from the teaching staff, that it's against the rules to duel in Hogwarts right?" Looking both ways, Harry saw no one else but Gryffindor students present and himself.

"Who cares about the rules? This is just to make sure you'll never talk to Hermione again, and if you try, I'll be there! Creepy quiet gits such as yourself should not be allowed to walk among us but rather rolling around in the dirt like pigs!"

"Very well, you set the terms," Harry acquiesced to Ron but thought, 'I won't show up, why would I? To cause more problems? But at the same time, if I don't, then they will use this to their advantage for as long as we remain here. Hm..'

"An hour and a half after curfew, third floor corridor, Dumbledore said it was out of bounds so we'll be alone. No contact, wands only. My second will be Dean, who's yours?" Ron smirked smugly. The other Gryffindors chuckled knowingly at Harry.

"You and I both know I don't have a 'second' so let's drop the act. I agree to Mr. Thomas as your second, I'll see you both tonight and when we're done, I'll be talking to Hermione, understand?"

"That won't be happening," Ron said confidently, though there was a tone of uncertainty in his voice that he quickly covered up with turning and walking away, laughing with the group at the certain demise that was sure to befall Harry.

11:30 p.m. 21st of October, 1991

Harry waited for several minutes before he slipped out of his room and away from the Slytherin common room. He gathered some of the magical energy he had been releasing still and made it surround him like a radar. In truth, he was somewhat excited for this encounter. He had read about magical duels before, of course, the most well known was between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. The magical power and intensity of that duel was legendary. The skill of the darkest wizard of the current era of the time and Dumbledore, one of the most renowned wizards in the world at the time were unmatched by most others in the world, rivaling each others abilities. Harry almost wished to experience that kind of duel personally though he knew he wouldn't get that with Ron nor anyone else that currently lived in the castle and if it did, he was scared it would harm innocent students such as Allison and Hermione.

Harry worked his way quickly through the dungeon, passed the basement, and up the ever-changing magical stairs of Hogwarts, though he did trip on one and nearly fell down a set. Around ten minutes later, Harry arrived at the third floor corridor. He didn't see Ron yet but he swore he heard a chuckle from the walls. It didn't sound human so Harry just assumed it was probably a ghost or maybe it was even Peeves, the infamous poltergeist. Harry had not felt the presence of anyone else on his path towards the corridor and so felt safe enough to move forward.

"Ah, there you are, I was beginning to think you were too scared to show up, Potter," Ron spat. "Are you ready?" Harry did see Ron and Dean at the end of the corridor but he also felt the presence of two more people hiding nearby.

'Hermione and Neville? Why are they here?,' Harry noted their presence and let his energy disperse. He didn't respond to Ron but held out his Faerie wand, showing that he was indeed ready.

"Alright!" Ron shouted. At the noise, Hermione and Neville squeaked and even Dean looked worried. He did agree with Ron about Slytherins but he still didn't want to get into trouble for it, they could solve the Slytherin problem any other day after Hogwarts or during off-hours.

Rage burned deep within Ron and it grew. It grew hot and Ron swung his wand in a wild pattern. Shocking to all that were present excluding Harry, a wave of fire rushed towards Harry.

Casually twirling his wand in his hands, Harry waved the wand in the pattern of the water charm. "Aqua Eructo…" A jet of water shot forth from the tip of the wand and collided with the fire, the two elements putting each other out, a cloud of steam came billowing out.

"Ron that was amazing! How did you do that?" Dean exclaimed.

"I-I don't know, I just felt so angry and let it out…" Ron looked at his wand, fascinated. Remembering where he was, Ron turned his wand on Harry again, more confident than ever before. "You see that?! You can't stop me now!" He slashed his wand down ferociously, wishing that Harry would turn to dust in the next seconds.

But nothing came out of the wand but a small shower of excited sparks. Again Ron slashed the wand but this time even less sparks shot out. He then waved his wand wildly in an attempt to bring about the same fire from before, nearly hitting Dean, who ducked out of the way, in the face.

"As I thought, you're too arrogant. Did you think you could do wordless magic twice in a row? Something like that isn't generally taught until the higher years and if a child such as you or I could do it, then they are either very skilled or it's accidental magic brought upon by emotions." Harry spoke sharply, almost annoyed. If Ron didn't learn restraint, he could cause serious harm to innocent bystanders. "If you try that again, I'll make sure you regret it, Mr. Weasley," Harry warned, his Faerie wand pointed and glowing at the tip.

"How dare you try to tell m-!" Ron began to exclaim, indignant that he was being told off by a Slytherin of all people, but Harry cut him off.

"Aqua Eructo!" Harry called out. Ron was really beginning to get on Harry's nerves at this point. He didn't stop casting the spell, making it into a continuous stream. The water hit Ron's face hard, splashing all over the corridor, eliciting more squeaks from Hermione and Neville as well as awe and fear from Dean. Ron was unable to speak.

After a few seconds of this, Harry let up the stream of water and allowed his irritation to subside. Ron choked and gasped for air. He let out a breath and set up his magical radar again and felt the presence of a small animal nearby. 'Mrs. Norris!' Harry cast a wide-spread hot-air charm and dried the corridor up within seconds as he sensed the infamous cat run off to wherever Mr. Filch was.

Harry knew that Filch was surprisingly fast once summoned and didn't dare to waste any time getting away but he surmised that Filch was closer than he initially thought and so ran to the closest door, and, noticing it was locked, cast the basic unlocking charm 'alohomora.'

"Everyone get inside, do you want to be caught by Filch or not?" Dean half-dragged Ron, who was still getting over the stunned feeling he was experiencing after being hit by the water-making spell while Hermione and Neville left their hiding places to join Harry.

"Harry? How did you know Filch was coming?" Hermione asked, scared.

"Shh, not now!" Harry said in a hushed tone.

He closed the door just in time because Filch had just rounded the corner with Mrs. Norris.

That's when he heard the chuckle within the walls again.

"Where were they Mrs. Norris? Down here? Students shouldn't be down here, it's out of bounds… When we catch them, they'll be expelled for sure!" Filch said excitedly.

The chuckle within the walls burst into full-out laughter.

"PEEVES!" Filch shouted angrily. "Get out here, now!"

"What services of Peeves do you require?" cackled the poltergeist.

"There were students here, where did they go?!" Filch demanded, his mood was soured by Peeves' presence and wanted nothing to do with the being.

"Say please!" he said with a chuckle.

"I demand you tell me now!" Filch spluttered.

"Won't say nothing until you say please!" Peeves said in his signature sing-song voice.

"Alright, please!"

"Nothing! Ha haha! Told you Peeves shan't say nothing until you said please!" Peeves said laughing and whooshed off.

Filch grumbled and stomped his feet, almost kicking Mrs. Norris causing the cat to hiss. The pair then walked off. By the time they were walking away, Ron, Dean, Hermione, and Neville all gave a sigh in relief. Harry had noticed the giant dog before he went inside but he didn't want to risk getting caught, after all, he could handle danger if it came down to it, he hoped.

"Don't make any sudden noises or movements," Harry whispered to the four as calmly as he could. They finally noticed the giant three-headed dog slobbering all over the floor, breathing and growling heavily at them. "Open the door and leave as calmly as you can, watch out for Filch, try not to disturb the dog on the way out, I'll try to distract it."

The cerberus took a step towards them and growled louder when Ron twitched. The three heads barked quietly and Ron shrieked, pulled the door open, and ran. The dog began to snap and bark up a storm trying to get at the remaining four students but they all quickly ran out of there. Harry nearly had his legs torn off as he was the closest.

'I may be strong but there's nothing quite like the feral instinct and speed of a beast like a cerberus…' Harry thought. He slammed the door shut and cast a bunch of different spells that even a sixth or seventh year would have trouble undoing. Filch and his cat were coming back quickly, he could feel it, so he ran as fast as he could down a different path, fortunate in that he managed to avoid the teachers and prefects on their patrols, though he did nearly run into Professor Snape who was headed towards the third floor corridor. He ducked behind a heavy tapestry and waited for the man to pass.

Arriving back to his room within the next five minutes, Harry crashed onto his bed. Turning over, he looked blankly at the ceiling.

'There was a trap door there, was that dog guarding something? If so, what and why? And why was there only a basic unlocking charm required to open that door? Something's wrong here. I wonder if Ron will renege on his side of the terms of the duel,' Harry thought suspiciously.

"I wonder if it'll be possible to talk with Hermione now."

With that last comment, sleep consumed him.


dragonfighter11: Thanks for pointing out aguamenti to me, I looked it up again and apparently it's a sixth year charm but aqua eructo is a 4th year spell. I don't know what you mean by redundant so you'll have to explain that to me in a pm this time.