Authors note: Hiya! Sorry I got this one out a little late (now
there's an understatement). I've been on a holiday, you see.
Several holidays, actually...
During these holidays I did some researching, just to make sure,
and you people who seems to think that all three year olds can
talk, and also happen to be quite the chatterboxes the lot of
them, are wrong. Kids are different. Some can talk almost
perfectly, some can talk a little, and some of them just keeps
following you around and repeats everything you say.
So there ya go!
Now why was I telling you this again? Oh, right, because little
Harry will be doing some talking of his own in this chapter.
And I'm so happy you're worried about him! That must mean you
care at least a little bit about him, mustn't it?
And thank you so much for your reviews! I never imagined I'd get
this many ever... And they're all so nice!
I'm not saying 'thank you' just to say it, I truly, honestly mean
it.
Chapter. 4 -Why you shouldn't trust strangers who can walk through doors...
"You idiot! How could you let this happen?! This is all your fault!" Ron's angry voice echoed trough the empty hallways (the mass of students who usually filled them were all down in the great hall eating dinner) as the three baby sitters rounded a corner, or: 'yet another corner' since there was rather many of them, and it felt like they had rounded every single one.
"*My*- fault?!" Draco's usually pale face was red and sweaty from all the running, his hair was a disaster and each breath sounded like a desperate struggle for air. He somehow managed to keep a conversation between these desperate gasps, don't ask me how. "Excuse me but-" -pant- "I didn't- hear any of *you* saying:- 'oh look-" -huff, puff- "look Harry is disappearing!'" -huff, heave- "I didn't hear that!"
"Well, neither of us were *carrying* him! You ought to have noticed *something*!" It was quite obvious that this day was not one of Ron's better days, and he was, just as obviously, not going to give up a good fight.
"Yeah? Well you were standing in front of me, looking straight at me, weren't you? *You're* the ones who ought to have noticed!"
They stopped (for no apparent reason) at the bottom of a staircase which could only be seen at Friday evenings by angry people who had just been running (yes, Hogwarts is indeed a marvelous place). Draco instantly slumped down with his back against the wall, panting as though he had just run a marathon (which he had, in a way). Hermione bendt over with her arms on her knees for support, and her hair like a big curly bush on top of her exceptionally intelligent head.
"Listen," she said, "he can't have gotten very far. After all he's just a little baby with short legs and big clothes. I mean, I'm pretty sure there are certain limits..." her voice trailed off as the staircase suddenly disappeared in a wisp of purple smoke (this staircase was in fact also another staircase which could only be seen at Friday evenings at the other end of the castle, and it had just went off to scare the shit out of a couple of first years who had lost themselves, looking for the great hall).
Draco wiped his forehead gracelessly with the back of his sleeve.
"So basically all we have to do is place ourselves in his situation and imagine where we'd go?" said Ron. Hermione nodded. "Exactly. But that might be easier said than done..."
"Well, we have better hurry up and find him," Ron said, "it's a big place, and he might get hurt." Hermione snorted, "or get in trouble. He's a genious when it comes to that."
"Does this mean more running?" Draco asked meekly from his corner where he'd crumpled up with a cramped leg and a miserable look. "Yes!" Ron was about to drag him up to his feet, when Draco raised his hands and proclaimed that if 'that freckle-faced weasel' so much as touched him, he'd cut him like a fish and feed him to Hagrid's blast ended screwts.
"Wouldn't it be better if we split up?" he suggested, before 'the freckle- faced weasel' got the time to come up with a line, or just simply break his jaw. "You know, this would go so much faster if we could search several areas at the same time." Hermione sighed slowly, and looked like she was thinking very hard about this suggestion. "Fine," she finally said, after a moment. "I'll start down in the great hall and work my way up, Ron you can take the corridors and the classrooms, and Malfoy can search the dungeons."
In the mean time, Harry Potter, the famous child everyone (or rather his three baby sitters) were looking for, was half walking half crawling down a corridor in a very different part of the castle. Not that he couldn't walk, but it was a bit difficult when he kept tripping on his over sized jeans.
He had no idea where he was, but truth to be told, he didn't care.
The most interesting question was perhaps *how* he'd gotten there, wherever it was. He wasn't quite sure about that either.
The place he was currently at, or rather: the corridor which he was currently in, appeared to have been made for the sole purpose of scaring away the students. The walls were dark, almost black, and slimy (they weren't actually slimy, but these walls had always *wanted* to be slimy, so they pretended they were, just for fun). It was very quiet, and being there gave you a strange feeling of hollowness. There were no windows or portraits of any sort, and no carpets on the cold stone floors. In fact it was a rather boring corridor, except that it was so spooky, of course.
But Harry paid no attention to the walls, whatsoever. Impossible as though it may seem, he had spotted something interesting. A door. A large, heavy door made out of either iron, or very dark wood. He would've guessed for the latter option if he had been old enough to bother, but since he wasn't he merely thought of it as another common, completely ordinary, average door.
As he aproached said door, he was mildly surprised when a transparent shape with a faint silvery glow around the edges floated trough it without having to open it first. It was a ghost. A small, unpretty man in an utterly ridiculous outfit.
Peeves...
Needless to say the ghost was no less surprised than the child, if not more. He had often made fun of the first years for being small, but this was absurd! He raised his silvery eyebrows (which had definetly not been plucked, and probably never even seen a pair of tweezers before) in genuine surprise, and for a moment he hang in midair without moving or saying a word.
Harry stared at him with large, emerald eyes, and was practically oozing of innocence and childish curiosity. Suddenly he tripped on the hem of his jeans and fell. He landed on his bottom, struggled a little to get back up and shook his head before once again directing his gaze at the poltergeist.
Peeves stared back. He found himself being oddly fascinated by this creature. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen such a young 'living one'...
"Hewwo, wha's youw name?" Harry asked shyly, and tugged a lock of his hair tightly in his little hand, as though he thought he might get braver by doing so. He wasn't very old yet, but he knew (or at least he was pretty sure) that most people couldn't just walk trough doors like that, and that it might be prudent to show some respect to the ones who could. At least to begin with.
A nasty grin spread itself on Peeves' ugly se-through face. "My name is Peeves the poltergeist," he said kindly and smiled like a shark. "Who are you, teenie-weenie little thingsy-wingsy?"
Harry giggled. The strange man used funny words! "Dwaycoh Maphoy!" he said, and clapped his little hands happily.
Peeves' grin widened. "Dwaycoh?" he said, "do you want to know what's behind this door?"
Harry nodded uncertainly, slightly disappointed that the PeeWee-man hadn't used any funny words this time. "Uh-huh..."
"But I can't tell you what it is... That's a surprise!" Peeves whispered. "You'll have to go and have a look for yourself!"
Harry aproached the door confidently, walked straight into it with a 'thud', fell on his bottom, struggled a little to get back up, wiped his hands on his T-shirt and did it all over again. Peeves shook his head and floated up to the little boy, trying very hard not to burst out laughing, all the while feeling even more fascinated by the little thing.
"No no no!" he said, as Harry rubbed his forehead. It would probably leave a bruise. "Why is little-bitty living-thing trying to walk through the door?" "Yoo di'," Harry muttered, wondering whether he was going to cry or not. He decided not to. "Ah, but uncle Peeves is not a living thingy, he's a ghost, you see," Peeves explained patiently. "Itsy-bitsy Dwaycoh must *open* the door first, and *then* go through it!"
Harry had to stand on his toes in order to reach the door knob, and even then he could barely touch it with his finger tips. Eventually he managed to jump up and cling on to it, giggling excitedly as the door creaked slowly open (probably more out of surprise than because Harry was actually strong or heavy enough to move the handle).
"Good boy," purred Peeves. "Now, go and see what's inside!"
Harry sucked his thumb, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful for someone still too young to watch an average Disney-movie. "Awe yoo comin' too?" he asked, only barely remembering to take out the thumb before speaking. Peeves hesitated. Unexpected question unexpected question unexpected question... "Sure!" he said, not remembering to think before speaking. Harry's adorable little face brightened up.
"'Draco search the dungeons!' 'Draco, search the dungeons!'" Draco's miserable expression had changed into that of anger and sulkyness. He had been searching the dungeons for almost ten whole minutes, and he was starting to get incredibly bored...
This search had so far awarded him with a lost first year who thought he was in the hospital wing, a toad who looked remarkably like Neville Longbottoms', the one he always lost, and yet another first year (this one wasn't lost though, she was, in fact, searching for the Slyhterins common room. Kind of weird really, Draco thought, since she was in Ravenclaw), and no Harry...
"Ok... if I was a baby where would I go?" he muttered to himself, as he stared at the portrait of a pretty young lady with a blank look, as though he wasn't actually seing her. "To the library maybe?" she suggested, obviously not used with being overseen by young men. "Why would I go the library?" Draco asked, still in the same muttering-to-myself voice, as though he thought he might have come up with the idea all by himself. "Er... because there would be many books you could... drool on? Ok, never mind that one! Try the kitchen instead." Draco stared at her, and at the same time straight through her, for a moment before he finally seemed to snap out of the thinking-trance-state. "A-hah!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I'll go look in the kitchen!" And with that, he turned his back and disappeared in the opposite direction of where the kitchen was. The pretty young lady in the painting sighed heavily and shook her head, "men...!"
It wasn't the first time Peeves the poltergeist had felt like a complete idiot. He did most of the time, actually. But for some reason the feeling was slightly stronger at the current moment. It might have had something to do with the fact that he was floating beside a very small, very young and definetly very cute 'living-thing' whom he'd just tricked into going into a very dangerous room, but who knows? There might have been other reasons as well.
Behind the door there was yet another long dark and slimy corridor (only these walls were slimy for real, and not just pretending they were for show) which opened up in the end, widened out and became a room. A room which was not meant for anyone to enter... Well, except for ghosts and poltergeists of course, since nothing can harm what is already dead (yeah yeah, I know the Bassilisk managed to do so in the second book, but there's not going to be a Bassilisk in the room, so that's irrelevant)
"Lookie!" Harry said, his low-pitched voice filled to the brim with excitement, as he pointed a small finger at the room. "Thewe's a woom... I's vewy dawk. Why is i' dawk?" He said something more, but Peeves wasn't able to make out the words properly. Due to the darkness it was almost impossible to make out where the room began and where it ended, but if you listened closely and carefully with your senses, you might just be able to get a vague impression. This latter option will of course be just as impossible as the first for whoever reads this, and I shall therefore reveal to you that it was a large room. A very large room actually. Figures it has to be, concidering what it contains. It is not a very beautiful room, and perhaps that is why it was chosen?
In a very different part of the castle, a long, lanky-looking character was walking (awfully slowly) down a corridor, where the walls had been decorated with beautiful portraits. He did not look happy. From time to time he'd bend down and whisper: "Harry? Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" and other similar phrases.
He was really worried about his young friend, and was becoming increasingly convinced that said friend was playing hide-and-seek with him and his fellow baby sitters.
He was also worried about Malfoy. Very worried about Malfoy, as a matter of fact... Why did he have to stick his repulsive face into this? He didn't even like Harry! And now he'd volounteered to be his baby sitter... It just didn't make any sense! Just as Draco concidered Ron to be a very unintelligent being, Ron concidered Draco to be a very unintelligent being, but this was too absurd. Malfoy did say he'd never intended to hurt Harry, or in any way take advantage of his reduced size and age... But could they trust him? Ron, for one (hey, that rhymes!), did not. He was fed up with Draco Malfoy and his oh-so hilarious sense of humor, and wasn't about to trust the bloody git with his best friend.
"I've gotta find Harry before *he* does!" he muttered to himself, and quickened his pace.
Just as Ron said this, Filch ran past the door that Harry and Peeves had just gone in through, and said some words I shall not repeat here. He looked as mean and ugly as ever, and his equally repulsive cat, Mrs. Norris, was running faithfully by his side.
Filch had been given the main responsibility of making sure no student went in through the door (the door Harry and Peeves had just went in through), and that what was behind the door didn't come out through it. This task sounded pretty simple, and it turned out to be not so much simple as just plain boring, untill Peeves, Filch's life long arch enemy, stole the keys to the before-mentioned door, and hid them. The worst thing about this was probably that Filch had not been able to lock the door before Peeves showed up, and that he was forced to leave the door unlocked while searching.
Harry yawned. He was starting to feel tired, and he couldn't see what was so fascinating about this room anyway. In fact, he wasn't able to see much at all. Actually he couldn't see a damn thing. How boring. The Pee-Wee man was hovering a few inches above the ground, his small eyes darting restlessly from dark spot to dark spot to yet another dark spot. "Where *is* it?" he muttered to himself from time to time. Harry wanted to ask him what 'it' was, and why exactly he wanted to know 'its' location so badly, but he didn't ask.
Suddenly his attention was drawn to a glowing light only a few feet away from where they were standing, and he could hear a low pitched snarling. At first there was only one, but then suddenly a second light appeared right next to the first.
It dawned to the little boy that they were eyes. Kind of yellow-reddish, he figured after a while. Although he didn't know it himself his eyesight was rather poor, and he was able to make out even less in the darkness than Peeves, or any other kid with normal eyesight was. However, he was not blind, and he was quite able to see that the eyes were slowly aproaching him...
He turned to the Pee-Wee man, but realised that he was gone. He looked around and saw the silvery shape floating high up, right underneath where he figured the ceiling must be. Harry didn't cry. He wasn't frightened. Not really. On the contrary he was, although vaguely curious about what kind of creature the eyes belonged to, bored, and starting to feel increasingly sleepy. He missed Dwaycoh Maphoy...
He noticed that a pair of similar eyes had appeared next to the first two, but seemed to somehow be attached to a completely different head. He wasn't surprised by this. Not even when yet another identical pair of glowing, yellow-reddish eyes appeared, making it a total of 6 glowing, yellow- reddish eyes, all directed at him.
Three gigantic heads lowered slowly downwards. Their heads were so close to the floor that they got dust in their noses whenever they drew a breath, that's how small little Harry was compared to them. He did, however, have quite an interesting smell...
Harry yawned. This was no fun. He reached out a small hand and touched something moist and soft barely a few inches from him. He didn't ask himself what it was, or why it hadn't been there three minutes ago. Perhaps it would make a nice pillow? He yawned a second time and allowed himself to fall against it.
Just as he did so, one of the heads gasped (we will never know why I'm afraid, nor will we ever find out how it did it, since huge, three-headed beasts don't gasp. Cuz they just can't, ok?), drew in too much dust, sneezed and sendt a now increasingly excited Harry tumbling accross the floor and straight into a hole in the wall (it would later turn out to be a ventilation shaft).
Peeves the poltergeist blinked. He blinked again. "Oh." he said.
"Master must please go now, t'is no baby here, goodbye." Draco struggled to break free, as a dozen house elves tried to push him out through the portrait hole. "But I have to find him!" Draco insisted, raising his arm to comb his fingers through his hair. He didn't notice the house elf who'd been clutching onto the arm before he raised it, a little too quickly, and sendt it flying across the kitchen. No one seemed to care. "Yes, yes, bye-bye now. T'is no baby here, Master must go look elsewhere."
The house elves had been sending up extra portions of dinner when Draco had made his entrée, and they hadn't been very happy with being disturbed while doing their job. Draco wasn't very happy with disturbing them either. He couldn't stand house elves. They were like filth, and nasty things you could crush under your shoes for fun. Kinda like the Weasleys, he'd always thought.
Now, as we all know, certain things have a habit of happening at the exact right moment. At least it's always like that in the movies. Although it's probably just to save time and money, it's quite funny when it actually happens in the real life. This was one of those moments...
Just as Draco turned to leave, something small and black came flying out the ventilation shaft. It flew through the air in a lovely arch and landed soundlessly in a large salad bowl on the nearest table. Draco was just able to make out a pair of big, gleaming, green eyes and a cheerful "Dwaycoh Maphoy!", before everything on the table disappeared with a 'swish'.
Authors note: sorry for making such a stupid chapter ^_^ Bet ya can't guess who the three-headed beast was!
If any of you asked me a question or said something in your review that I feel I ought to explain, you'll find my answers here. I wrote this when I'd gotten 120 reviews, so if you reviewed after that, you'll not be featured here in this chapter and will have to wait for the next: [Venus4280: thank you, you were the first to review the third chapter! I hope you liked this chapter better, since Harry said many things. Hope you'll keep reading!] [Snake Eyes: thank you! 'Oh my Goddess', huh? I sense we have a feminist among us ^_^ I'm so happy you like my little Harry! And I'm seriously considering your idea, but I'll have to see how this story turns out first before I can say anything for certain.] [Isa: thank you! YAY!!! Another Harry worshipper!!! Keep it up!!!] [me: thank you! I was out first with this idea, you say? That's wonderful news! But like I said, I haven't read any of these fics, so I wouldn't know. I really thought I was the first to come up with this...] [Prophetess Of Hearts: thank you! Haven't you read 'Hogwarts a history'? You can't apparate or disapparate inside Hogwarts grounds. I'll tell you how he got away someday, when I come up with something ^_^] [Relle: thank you! I'm so glad you found my story, and I'm touched by the fact that you even tried. I hope my story will live up to your expectations! I promise I'll do my best!] [Amanda: thank you! And there's no need to worry, because I will finish this story.] [Klee: thank you! Wow, thank you, I'm flattered *blushes*... Yes, 'Monsters.Inc' was great, wasn't it? Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, and that you'll keep reading!] [hanfan: thank you! I'm so glad you liked it! Hope my English teacher feels the same way about my writing as you do...!] [Bucky: thank you! Of course Ginny'll be in the story, don't worry! And I'm sorry about the updating-thing, but I've been soooo busy lately. Hope you can forgive me...?]
PS: I just have to tell you this, I got top grades in English!!! Both my writing, reading and speaking was 'almost as perfect as can be'!!! Can you imagine that? D'you know how hard that is? I'm so happy!!
Chapter. 4 -Why you shouldn't trust strangers who can walk through doors...
"You idiot! How could you let this happen?! This is all your fault!" Ron's angry voice echoed trough the empty hallways (the mass of students who usually filled them were all down in the great hall eating dinner) as the three baby sitters rounded a corner, or: 'yet another corner' since there was rather many of them, and it felt like they had rounded every single one.
"*My*- fault?!" Draco's usually pale face was red and sweaty from all the running, his hair was a disaster and each breath sounded like a desperate struggle for air. He somehow managed to keep a conversation between these desperate gasps, don't ask me how. "Excuse me but-" -pant- "I didn't- hear any of *you* saying:- 'oh look-" -huff, puff- "look Harry is disappearing!'" -huff, heave- "I didn't hear that!"
"Well, neither of us were *carrying* him! You ought to have noticed *something*!" It was quite obvious that this day was not one of Ron's better days, and he was, just as obviously, not going to give up a good fight.
"Yeah? Well you were standing in front of me, looking straight at me, weren't you? *You're* the ones who ought to have noticed!"
They stopped (for no apparent reason) at the bottom of a staircase which could only be seen at Friday evenings by angry people who had just been running (yes, Hogwarts is indeed a marvelous place). Draco instantly slumped down with his back against the wall, panting as though he had just run a marathon (which he had, in a way). Hermione bendt over with her arms on her knees for support, and her hair like a big curly bush on top of her exceptionally intelligent head.
"Listen," she said, "he can't have gotten very far. After all he's just a little baby with short legs and big clothes. I mean, I'm pretty sure there are certain limits..." her voice trailed off as the staircase suddenly disappeared in a wisp of purple smoke (this staircase was in fact also another staircase which could only be seen at Friday evenings at the other end of the castle, and it had just went off to scare the shit out of a couple of first years who had lost themselves, looking for the great hall).
Draco wiped his forehead gracelessly with the back of his sleeve.
"So basically all we have to do is place ourselves in his situation and imagine where we'd go?" said Ron. Hermione nodded. "Exactly. But that might be easier said than done..."
"Well, we have better hurry up and find him," Ron said, "it's a big place, and he might get hurt." Hermione snorted, "or get in trouble. He's a genious when it comes to that."
"Does this mean more running?" Draco asked meekly from his corner where he'd crumpled up with a cramped leg and a miserable look. "Yes!" Ron was about to drag him up to his feet, when Draco raised his hands and proclaimed that if 'that freckle-faced weasel' so much as touched him, he'd cut him like a fish and feed him to Hagrid's blast ended screwts.
"Wouldn't it be better if we split up?" he suggested, before 'the freckle- faced weasel' got the time to come up with a line, or just simply break his jaw. "You know, this would go so much faster if we could search several areas at the same time." Hermione sighed slowly, and looked like she was thinking very hard about this suggestion. "Fine," she finally said, after a moment. "I'll start down in the great hall and work my way up, Ron you can take the corridors and the classrooms, and Malfoy can search the dungeons."
In the mean time, Harry Potter, the famous child everyone (or rather his three baby sitters) were looking for, was half walking half crawling down a corridor in a very different part of the castle. Not that he couldn't walk, but it was a bit difficult when he kept tripping on his over sized jeans.
He had no idea where he was, but truth to be told, he didn't care.
The most interesting question was perhaps *how* he'd gotten there, wherever it was. He wasn't quite sure about that either.
The place he was currently at, or rather: the corridor which he was currently in, appeared to have been made for the sole purpose of scaring away the students. The walls were dark, almost black, and slimy (they weren't actually slimy, but these walls had always *wanted* to be slimy, so they pretended they were, just for fun). It was very quiet, and being there gave you a strange feeling of hollowness. There were no windows or portraits of any sort, and no carpets on the cold stone floors. In fact it was a rather boring corridor, except that it was so spooky, of course.
But Harry paid no attention to the walls, whatsoever. Impossible as though it may seem, he had spotted something interesting. A door. A large, heavy door made out of either iron, or very dark wood. He would've guessed for the latter option if he had been old enough to bother, but since he wasn't he merely thought of it as another common, completely ordinary, average door.
As he aproached said door, he was mildly surprised when a transparent shape with a faint silvery glow around the edges floated trough it without having to open it first. It was a ghost. A small, unpretty man in an utterly ridiculous outfit.
Peeves...
Needless to say the ghost was no less surprised than the child, if not more. He had often made fun of the first years for being small, but this was absurd! He raised his silvery eyebrows (which had definetly not been plucked, and probably never even seen a pair of tweezers before) in genuine surprise, and for a moment he hang in midair without moving or saying a word.
Harry stared at him with large, emerald eyes, and was practically oozing of innocence and childish curiosity. Suddenly he tripped on the hem of his jeans and fell. He landed on his bottom, struggled a little to get back up and shook his head before once again directing his gaze at the poltergeist.
Peeves stared back. He found himself being oddly fascinated by this creature. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen such a young 'living one'...
"Hewwo, wha's youw name?" Harry asked shyly, and tugged a lock of his hair tightly in his little hand, as though he thought he might get braver by doing so. He wasn't very old yet, but he knew (or at least he was pretty sure) that most people couldn't just walk trough doors like that, and that it might be prudent to show some respect to the ones who could. At least to begin with.
A nasty grin spread itself on Peeves' ugly se-through face. "My name is Peeves the poltergeist," he said kindly and smiled like a shark. "Who are you, teenie-weenie little thingsy-wingsy?"
Harry giggled. The strange man used funny words! "Dwaycoh Maphoy!" he said, and clapped his little hands happily.
Peeves' grin widened. "Dwaycoh?" he said, "do you want to know what's behind this door?"
Harry nodded uncertainly, slightly disappointed that the PeeWee-man hadn't used any funny words this time. "Uh-huh..."
"But I can't tell you what it is... That's a surprise!" Peeves whispered. "You'll have to go and have a look for yourself!"
Harry aproached the door confidently, walked straight into it with a 'thud', fell on his bottom, struggled a little to get back up, wiped his hands on his T-shirt and did it all over again. Peeves shook his head and floated up to the little boy, trying very hard not to burst out laughing, all the while feeling even more fascinated by the little thing.
"No no no!" he said, as Harry rubbed his forehead. It would probably leave a bruise. "Why is little-bitty living-thing trying to walk through the door?" "Yoo di'," Harry muttered, wondering whether he was going to cry or not. He decided not to. "Ah, but uncle Peeves is not a living thingy, he's a ghost, you see," Peeves explained patiently. "Itsy-bitsy Dwaycoh must *open* the door first, and *then* go through it!"
Harry had to stand on his toes in order to reach the door knob, and even then he could barely touch it with his finger tips. Eventually he managed to jump up and cling on to it, giggling excitedly as the door creaked slowly open (probably more out of surprise than because Harry was actually strong or heavy enough to move the handle).
"Good boy," purred Peeves. "Now, go and see what's inside!"
Harry sucked his thumb, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful for someone still too young to watch an average Disney-movie. "Awe yoo comin' too?" he asked, only barely remembering to take out the thumb before speaking. Peeves hesitated. Unexpected question unexpected question unexpected question... "Sure!" he said, not remembering to think before speaking. Harry's adorable little face brightened up.
"'Draco search the dungeons!' 'Draco, search the dungeons!'" Draco's miserable expression had changed into that of anger and sulkyness. He had been searching the dungeons for almost ten whole minutes, and he was starting to get incredibly bored...
This search had so far awarded him with a lost first year who thought he was in the hospital wing, a toad who looked remarkably like Neville Longbottoms', the one he always lost, and yet another first year (this one wasn't lost though, she was, in fact, searching for the Slyhterins common room. Kind of weird really, Draco thought, since she was in Ravenclaw), and no Harry...
"Ok... if I was a baby where would I go?" he muttered to himself, as he stared at the portrait of a pretty young lady with a blank look, as though he wasn't actually seing her. "To the library maybe?" she suggested, obviously not used with being overseen by young men. "Why would I go the library?" Draco asked, still in the same muttering-to-myself voice, as though he thought he might have come up with the idea all by himself. "Er... because there would be many books you could... drool on? Ok, never mind that one! Try the kitchen instead." Draco stared at her, and at the same time straight through her, for a moment before he finally seemed to snap out of the thinking-trance-state. "A-hah!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I'll go look in the kitchen!" And with that, he turned his back and disappeared in the opposite direction of where the kitchen was. The pretty young lady in the painting sighed heavily and shook her head, "men...!"
It wasn't the first time Peeves the poltergeist had felt like a complete idiot. He did most of the time, actually. But for some reason the feeling was slightly stronger at the current moment. It might have had something to do with the fact that he was floating beside a very small, very young and definetly very cute 'living-thing' whom he'd just tricked into going into a very dangerous room, but who knows? There might have been other reasons as well.
Behind the door there was yet another long dark and slimy corridor (only these walls were slimy for real, and not just pretending they were for show) which opened up in the end, widened out and became a room. A room which was not meant for anyone to enter... Well, except for ghosts and poltergeists of course, since nothing can harm what is already dead (yeah yeah, I know the Bassilisk managed to do so in the second book, but there's not going to be a Bassilisk in the room, so that's irrelevant)
"Lookie!" Harry said, his low-pitched voice filled to the brim with excitement, as he pointed a small finger at the room. "Thewe's a woom... I's vewy dawk. Why is i' dawk?" He said something more, but Peeves wasn't able to make out the words properly. Due to the darkness it was almost impossible to make out where the room began and where it ended, but if you listened closely and carefully with your senses, you might just be able to get a vague impression. This latter option will of course be just as impossible as the first for whoever reads this, and I shall therefore reveal to you that it was a large room. A very large room actually. Figures it has to be, concidering what it contains. It is not a very beautiful room, and perhaps that is why it was chosen?
In a very different part of the castle, a long, lanky-looking character was walking (awfully slowly) down a corridor, where the walls had been decorated with beautiful portraits. He did not look happy. From time to time he'd bend down and whisper: "Harry? Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" and other similar phrases.
He was really worried about his young friend, and was becoming increasingly convinced that said friend was playing hide-and-seek with him and his fellow baby sitters.
He was also worried about Malfoy. Very worried about Malfoy, as a matter of fact... Why did he have to stick his repulsive face into this? He didn't even like Harry! And now he'd volounteered to be his baby sitter... It just didn't make any sense! Just as Draco concidered Ron to be a very unintelligent being, Ron concidered Draco to be a very unintelligent being, but this was too absurd. Malfoy did say he'd never intended to hurt Harry, or in any way take advantage of his reduced size and age... But could they trust him? Ron, for one (hey, that rhymes!), did not. He was fed up with Draco Malfoy and his oh-so hilarious sense of humor, and wasn't about to trust the bloody git with his best friend.
"I've gotta find Harry before *he* does!" he muttered to himself, and quickened his pace.
Just as Ron said this, Filch ran past the door that Harry and Peeves had just gone in through, and said some words I shall not repeat here. He looked as mean and ugly as ever, and his equally repulsive cat, Mrs. Norris, was running faithfully by his side.
Filch had been given the main responsibility of making sure no student went in through the door (the door Harry and Peeves had just went in through), and that what was behind the door didn't come out through it. This task sounded pretty simple, and it turned out to be not so much simple as just plain boring, untill Peeves, Filch's life long arch enemy, stole the keys to the before-mentioned door, and hid them. The worst thing about this was probably that Filch had not been able to lock the door before Peeves showed up, and that he was forced to leave the door unlocked while searching.
Harry yawned. He was starting to feel tired, and he couldn't see what was so fascinating about this room anyway. In fact, he wasn't able to see much at all. Actually he couldn't see a damn thing. How boring. The Pee-Wee man was hovering a few inches above the ground, his small eyes darting restlessly from dark spot to dark spot to yet another dark spot. "Where *is* it?" he muttered to himself from time to time. Harry wanted to ask him what 'it' was, and why exactly he wanted to know 'its' location so badly, but he didn't ask.
Suddenly his attention was drawn to a glowing light only a few feet away from where they were standing, and he could hear a low pitched snarling. At first there was only one, but then suddenly a second light appeared right next to the first.
It dawned to the little boy that they were eyes. Kind of yellow-reddish, he figured after a while. Although he didn't know it himself his eyesight was rather poor, and he was able to make out even less in the darkness than Peeves, or any other kid with normal eyesight was. However, he was not blind, and he was quite able to see that the eyes were slowly aproaching him...
He turned to the Pee-Wee man, but realised that he was gone. He looked around and saw the silvery shape floating high up, right underneath where he figured the ceiling must be. Harry didn't cry. He wasn't frightened. Not really. On the contrary he was, although vaguely curious about what kind of creature the eyes belonged to, bored, and starting to feel increasingly sleepy. He missed Dwaycoh Maphoy...
He noticed that a pair of similar eyes had appeared next to the first two, but seemed to somehow be attached to a completely different head. He wasn't surprised by this. Not even when yet another identical pair of glowing, yellow-reddish eyes appeared, making it a total of 6 glowing, yellow- reddish eyes, all directed at him.
Three gigantic heads lowered slowly downwards. Their heads were so close to the floor that they got dust in their noses whenever they drew a breath, that's how small little Harry was compared to them. He did, however, have quite an interesting smell...
Harry yawned. This was no fun. He reached out a small hand and touched something moist and soft barely a few inches from him. He didn't ask himself what it was, or why it hadn't been there three minutes ago. Perhaps it would make a nice pillow? He yawned a second time and allowed himself to fall against it.
Just as he did so, one of the heads gasped (we will never know why I'm afraid, nor will we ever find out how it did it, since huge, three-headed beasts don't gasp. Cuz they just can't, ok?), drew in too much dust, sneezed and sendt a now increasingly excited Harry tumbling accross the floor and straight into a hole in the wall (it would later turn out to be a ventilation shaft).
Peeves the poltergeist blinked. He blinked again. "Oh." he said.
"Master must please go now, t'is no baby here, goodbye." Draco struggled to break free, as a dozen house elves tried to push him out through the portrait hole. "But I have to find him!" Draco insisted, raising his arm to comb his fingers through his hair. He didn't notice the house elf who'd been clutching onto the arm before he raised it, a little too quickly, and sendt it flying across the kitchen. No one seemed to care. "Yes, yes, bye-bye now. T'is no baby here, Master must go look elsewhere."
The house elves had been sending up extra portions of dinner when Draco had made his entrée, and they hadn't been very happy with being disturbed while doing their job. Draco wasn't very happy with disturbing them either. He couldn't stand house elves. They were like filth, and nasty things you could crush under your shoes for fun. Kinda like the Weasleys, he'd always thought.
Now, as we all know, certain things have a habit of happening at the exact right moment. At least it's always like that in the movies. Although it's probably just to save time and money, it's quite funny when it actually happens in the real life. This was one of those moments...
Just as Draco turned to leave, something small and black came flying out the ventilation shaft. It flew through the air in a lovely arch and landed soundlessly in a large salad bowl on the nearest table. Draco was just able to make out a pair of big, gleaming, green eyes and a cheerful "Dwaycoh Maphoy!", before everything on the table disappeared with a 'swish'.
Authors note: sorry for making such a stupid chapter ^_^ Bet ya can't guess who the three-headed beast was!
If any of you asked me a question or said something in your review that I feel I ought to explain, you'll find my answers here. I wrote this when I'd gotten 120 reviews, so if you reviewed after that, you'll not be featured here in this chapter and will have to wait for the next: [Venus4280: thank you, you were the first to review the third chapter! I hope you liked this chapter better, since Harry said many things. Hope you'll keep reading!] [Snake Eyes: thank you! 'Oh my Goddess', huh? I sense we have a feminist among us ^_^ I'm so happy you like my little Harry! And I'm seriously considering your idea, but I'll have to see how this story turns out first before I can say anything for certain.] [Isa: thank you! YAY!!! Another Harry worshipper!!! Keep it up!!!] [me: thank you! I was out first with this idea, you say? That's wonderful news! But like I said, I haven't read any of these fics, so I wouldn't know. I really thought I was the first to come up with this...] [Prophetess Of Hearts: thank you! Haven't you read 'Hogwarts a history'? You can't apparate or disapparate inside Hogwarts grounds. I'll tell you how he got away someday, when I come up with something ^_^] [Relle: thank you! I'm so glad you found my story, and I'm touched by the fact that you even tried. I hope my story will live up to your expectations! I promise I'll do my best!] [Amanda: thank you! And there's no need to worry, because I will finish this story.] [Klee: thank you! Wow, thank you, I'm flattered *blushes*... Yes, 'Monsters.Inc' was great, wasn't it? Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, and that you'll keep reading!] [hanfan: thank you! I'm so glad you liked it! Hope my English teacher feels the same way about my writing as you do...!] [Bucky: thank you! Of course Ginny'll be in the story, don't worry! And I'm sorry about the updating-thing, but I've been soooo busy lately. Hope you can forgive me...?]
PS: I just have to tell you this, I got top grades in English!!! Both my writing, reading and speaking was 'almost as perfect as can be'!!! Can you imagine that? D'you know how hard that is? I'm so happy!!