POV: Natsuki
I'd always been a pretty light sleeper.
Maybe it had something to do with the bi-nightly nightmares of hairy faces and sharp claws putting me on high alert at nearly all times, but that's just a guess. I don't know the actual reason, and I don't much care to find out.
Point is it didn't take much to wake me up. It could be as soft as an owl hooting outside my window, or as loud as Papa slamming open the door after a night on the town at The Leaky Cauldron. The result would still be the same, me jolting up in bed, wide awake with my heart pounding against my chest.
Or, as was the case tonight, the sound of barely audible murmuring from a handful of people in the downstairs common room.
With a bleary groan, I managed to half-open one of my eyes and glance at the dormitory grandfather clock, faintly illuminated by a beam of moonlight.
Half past 12.
I suppressed a sigh that quickly turned into a yawn as I laid back down, wishing these idiots I unfortunately shared House with would be a little more considerate for once and not have their dumb debates while the rest of us were trying to sleep.
I closed my eyes again, doing my very best to just turn a deaf ear to the discussion growing increasingly louder by the second.
"…going out again."
"No, no, no. No we're not. Why don't you go back to bed, Neville?"
I tried ignoring them. I really did. But upon recognizing the familiar lisping voice of the girl downstairs, I had to turn and check on Hermione Granger's bed, just to make sure I'd heard correctly.
Sure enough, it was completely abandoned.
…you've GOT to be kidding me.
She was sneaking out again?!
And indeed, upon listening harder I soon realized her partners in crime, Potter and the Rat-Boy among the voices. By the sound of it, they were all having a muted, but somehow very loud whispering match with whom could only be the Longbottom kid.
They have to be insane. There's no other explanation for doing something so THICK after all the shit that happened last time!
I turned again to lie on my back, forcing my eyes shut.
Their stupid quest to see how many school rules they could break in a single year had absolutely nothing to do with me whatsoever. All I had to do was ignore their nonsense and go back to sleep. Simple enough.
"NEVILLE!"
Rat-Boy's angry voice suddenly erupted, and I was surprised he didn't wake up the entire House in the process.
"Get away from the hole, and don't be an idiot-"
"Don't you call me an idiot!"
Longbottom fired back in an impressive display of defiance I'd never witnessed from the pudgy boy before, clearly determined to prevent the trio from leaving the Common Room. He was even threatening to fight them if need be.
It was… kind of admirable actually, considering his skill level. Or lack thereof.
It's not my problem, though! I turned in bed again, catching myself before I became invested in their stupid confrontation. I don't owe Longbottom anything, and he doesn't owe me. I don't give a shit about him, or them, the points we'll lose or anyone else in this stupid bloody School! I don't-
"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." Came Granger's voice, soft and apologetic. Then-
"Petrificus Totalus!"
My eyes burst open as I heard the incantation, swiftly followed by the hollow thump of something heavy hitting the floor downstairs.
She didn't actually- no, even they wouldn't-
More alert and awake than ever before, I gave up trying to get any more sleep tonight as I rushed out of bed as quietly as I could. Making my way down the stairs to the Common Room, I was intent on seeing the scene for myself and convince my jumbling thoughts that I'd simply heard wrong.
She'd have to be MAD if she actually cast THAT spell on another Gryffin-
I froze on the final stair step, taking in the surreal scene before me; Neville Longbottom lying flat on his face on the floor in his pajamas, stiff as a board and completely immobile whilst Potter, Weasley and Granger stood above him. The latter of whom quickly put her wand away to bend down and roll the motionless kid onto his back.
"What've you done to him?" Potter whispered, adjusting his glasses with an expression of pure shock on his face. It seemed none of them had noticed me yet.
"It's the full Body-Bind." Granger answered miserably, her face mirroring Potter's. "Oh Neville, I'm so sorry!"
"What the hell is wrong with you guys?!" I blurted out, no longer able to contain myself. "Did you seriously just paralyze another student?!"
The three of them jumped at the same time, Granger in particular needing to slap a hand to her mouth in order to suppress a faint shriek. At once, all their heads turned to stare directly at me.
A moment passed where nobody said anything, their panicked eyes making it very clear they hadn't the faintest clue how to handle a situation like this.
Then, when their bodies finally caught up to their brains, all three of them silently pulled their wands out.
"Wow, wow!" I raised my hands defensively as three wand tips started pointing directly towards my face. "Take it easy there, would ya?!"
"What do we do about this one?!" Rat-Boy hissed out of the corner of his mouth, glancing sideways to his accomplices.
"I don't know, but we need to do it fast!" Potter responded, looking to his side as well. "Hermione, can't you stun her too?!"
"I- I d- don't kn-" Both Granger's voice and hand were ferociously shaking as she stared me down, without daring to blink.
"Don't you fucking dare!" I protested angrily. "Lower your wands right now or I swear I'm gonna scream!"
There was no reaction from any of them. If anything, they seemed to point harder at me, somehow.
…maaaybe hostility isn't the greatest play here.
"Okay, look." I sighed deeply, switching tactics to try and disarm some of the tension. "Far as I can tell, you don't wanna be caught sneaking out. I don't much fancy being cursed, myself. So what do you say we all just calm down and talk this out like normal human beings?"
The trio hesitantly exchanged glances between themselves, clearly uncomfortable before their "leader" nervously pushed up his glasses and spoke.
"We don't have time for this-"
"Make time, Potter!" I growled, silencing the boy. "C'mon, you're three against the smallest girl in Gryffindor. I'm unarmed, unprepared and in my PJ's. Are you really cowardly enough to blast a minor inconvenience like me?!"
A few frightening seconds ticked by where nobody moved, talked, or made a sound. I was just about to throw caution to the wind and scream my lungs out- with any luck, the Prefects would be able to catch up to Potter and reverse the Body-Bind on me within moments- when, to my great relief, the trinity of troublemakers slowly lowered their wands.
"You guys have to be gluttons for punishment." I hid my sigh of relief under a deep layer of admonishment. "I mean, what the hell were you thinking? 'Hey, remember that time we lost 150 points and made everyone hate us? How about we do that exact same thing again, but add assault to the mix?!'"
"You don't understand!" Potter's face flushed red as he waved his arms about, trying to come up with some kind of justification for his actions. "We have to do this, or, or-"
"Holy shit." I interrupted his harebrained ramblings, unable to contain myself upon seeing the bundle of silver cloth held within his hand, previously kept away behind his back. "Is- is that…?!"
All three of them followed my eyes as one, staring with bewilderment at the item as if just noticing it now. By the time Potter realized his error and finally hid the cloth again, the damage had already been done.
"You have a freakin' Invisibility Cloak?! Where'd you ge- hey, what the hell?!"
The three kids had gone right back to pointing their wands in my face, forcing me to once again raise my arms.
"Look, I'm not gonna tell anyone!" I assured them, starting to get seriously miffed at their behaviour. Honestly, did it hurt them to think a little before acting?! "Well, unless you curse me, that is!"
"You reckon we can trust her?" Rat-Boy muttered conspicuously.
"I… don't think we have much of a choice, she's already seen it." Potter replied, looking conflicted. "Well, unless… Hermione, you can't… make her forget or something, can you?"
To my relief, Granger plainly shook her head, looking disgusted at the very suggestion.
"Absolutely not! Memory spells are much too fickle, and studies have shown they can cause serious harm to the brain over time!"
At least they've got SOME sense in them!
Rather reluctantly, they lowered their wands once more.
"Bloody hell." I shook my head, trying to process this. "So this is how you've been sneaking out unnoticed all those nights? Geez, how'd you even manage to get caught at all with that thing?"
"We, uh-" Potter hesitated, face red with embarrassment. "We kinda… forgot to put it back on when we returned from the Astronomy Tower."
I stared at him.
"You forgot the thing keeping you invisible while sneaking out at night?"
Granger looked down at her shoes, while Rat-Boy's ears went hot red.
Maybe You-Know-Who already damaged his brain when he gave him that scar.
"Look, this is really important!" Potter urged, looking understandably keen to move on from the topic at hand. "Unless we stop Snape, school points will be the least of our worries! He's going to steal the Philos-"
"I don't care!" I interrupted impatiently. "I don't care if Snape's smuggling a hundred illegal dragons or whatever it is you think he's doing. I don't even care about the points, really. But there are people at Gryffindor who do care. People who've worked as hard as they could all year to win that House Cup, only for some meddling first-years to snatch away the opportunity! And now, you're treating them like this?!"
I gestured at the downed Longbottom on the floor, whose desperate eyes had darted back and forth between us this whole time.
Potter and Weasley both looked very uncomfortable, while Granger had to actually look away with shame clearly visible on her pale face.
"I have to say, that seems like a really shitty thing to do." I concluded.
Why am I getting so mad? It's not like I care about what some idiots do to other idiots, and everyone in Gryffindor is an idiot!
…right?
"…we have to go." Potter said at last, looking back at me. His bright green eyes offered no further explanations or regret, showcasing instead a cold, steadfast determination to see his mission done whatever the cost.
It was scarily familiar to someone else I knew.
"Fine, go already." I shrugged, stepping out of the way. "Do whatever the hell you think is so important, don't let me stop ya."
"How do we know you're not just gonna tell a Prefect once we leave?" Rat-Boy asked, squinting suspiciously at me. It was quite obvious to tell how much he still wanted to curse me.
Jerk.
"Suppose you don't really know, do you?" I retorted, glaring back at him. "But, you're in a hurry right now. And I swear, before I let you put me down, I am gonna drag it for as long as I possibly can. Dealing with me is gonna be obnoxiously, tediously painful, and I'll make sure to waste every last second of your oh-so-precious time."
"She's right, Ron. It's not worth it." Potter said, grabbing a firm hold of his friend's wrist and began half-dragging him towards the portrait hole. "We need to leave, now!"
"Don't worry, Ron!" I added. "See, unlike some of us, I don't really make a habit of betraying my own House!"
The redhead opened his mouth, surely to fire off some scathing retort at me before another urging tug from Potter compelled him to leave it alone, and follow him and Granger out the portrait hole in silence.
I looked after them for a bit, not really sure what to do or think now that I was all alone in the dark common room.
…
A sudden, deep croak from below made me glance downwards to the bundle of petrified dead weight on the floor, where upon a medium-sized toad seemed to have settled itself like a protective dog.
"Oh, right. You." I muttered, remembering I wasn't completely alone.
Neville Longbottom said nothing, only staring at me with large, pleading eyes.
"Fine, I'll go get my wand." I sighed, dragging my feet back towards the girl's dormitories. "Don't you go anywhere, okay?"
It was important to have fun with the little things in life while you still could.
A brief departure upstairs later, I pointed my newly obtained wand straight at Longbottom. At once, the toad obediently departed from his torso, seeking refuge under an armchair.
"Hmm, not totally sure about the counter-curse for this one…" I mumbled to myself, ignoring the silent panic flooding his eyes. "If this doesn't work I can get ya some pillows to lay on for the rest of the night. Sound good?"
Wasting no further time waiting for a response that wouldn't arrive, I got to work.
"Finite Incantatem!"
A noiseless cloud of green smoke erupted from my wand-tip, quickly settling on Longbottom's body and enveloping itself all around his stiff limbs. Almost at once, his fingers began to twitch erratically, a development soon copied by the rest of the body until finally he gasped, jolted upright, frantically reaching up to feel his own face.
"Th- thank you!" He gulped out in gratitude.
"Yeah, whate-e-ever…" I yawned, the time of night finally catching up to me. Pocketing my wand, I offered Longbottom a hand to help him up.
"Did you see where Trevor went?!" He implored the second he got to his feet.
"Where who went?"
"Trevor! Y'know, my toad?"
"Uhh-" I glanced towards the armchair again, discovering that not a trace remained of the creature from just moments before. "…nope, haven't a clue."
The boy let out a soft groan of despair.
"Sorry." I shrugged, not really knowing what else to say. I didn't really have the fondest of feelings towards amphibians of any kind.
"Guess I'll have to find him later…" He let out a sigh, before shaking his head. "But never mind that now, we have to wake up the Prefects!"
I blinked.
"We're gonna what now?"
"Potter!" Longbottom exclaimed feverishly, already heading towards the boys' dormitories. "We have to stop Harry Potter and the others before they get caught!"
"Neville, stop!" The words flew from my mouth, and I felt my hand automatically reaching into my pocket.
"W- what?!" He whispered, frozen on the first stair step as he looked back, cross-eyed from staring down the wand-tip I suddenly found myself aiming at him.
"You're not going to tell on them." I said calmly. "Now get back down here, I don't wanna have to curse you again."
…what am I doing?
"I- I don't understand?" Neville whimpered in a similar state of confusion. All the same, he obeyed my order and stepped off the stairs. "W- we have to tell someone!"
"We really don't." I said, not lowering my hand an inch. Silently, I gestured for him to take a seat in the large couch by the smoldering fireplace. "Nobody likes a snitch, Longbottom. Now sit your arse down and shut up."
The boy looked conflicted for a few moments, before eventually deciding that getting Body-Bound two times in one night wasn't really worth it. With trembling motions, he shuffled over to the couch, taking a seat at the far end.
I sat down myself in the opposite side, making sure to keep my wand aimed square on his chest at all times in case he tried to run away.
Blearily, I rubbed at my eye with my other hand.
So, this is apparently how the rest of my night's gonna go. Fantastic.
"It's… N- Natsuki, right?" He finally spoke in a weak, fretful voice. I nodded.
"W- why are you doing this, Natsuki?"
Yeah, that's the million-galleon question here, innit?
I sent a glare his way, masking the fact that I hadn't a clue how to respond.
"Eh." I shrugged, un-committed. "Just not a big fan of tattletales, is all. It's none of our business if Potter and his gang want to get expelled this badly, so just let them do their thing."
"B- but if they get caught, Gryffindor's gonna lose even more poin-"
"Oh, cry me a river. We're at rock bottom already, what's a few more hundred points gonna do? Make us lose harder?" I clicked my tongue, irritated. That bloody point argument again. "Either way, it's no skin off my back."
"B- but you're a Gryffin-"
"Look, I don't have to explain myself to you!" I shot forth a few warning sparks to shut him up. "You can tell on them in the morning, after they're done with whatever the hell they're doing!"
Longbottom's round face went deathly pale as his eyes widened in terrified shock. But thankfully, he remained quiet while doing so.
"And don't pretend like you're some kinda noble, selfless hero by snitching on them." I growled at him for good measure. "You just wanna save your own reputation after that whole dragon fiasco!"
"What?!" Neville exclaimed, looking at me with very convincing offense in his eyes. "No, that's not what I'm doing at all! I'm just- I don't want them to get eaten!"
"…eaten?" I blinked. Of all the possible excuses he could have given me, I hadn't expected that one. "By what, exactly?"
He shifted his eyes back and forth before he spoke, as if conflicted about something.
"There's… a dog at this school." He finally admitted, sighing deeply.
"A dog?" I repeated, unsure if he was taking the piss. "Do you mean like, Hagrid's dog?"
"No! I mean, yes!" Neville shook his head, stumbling over his own words. "I mean- I think it's his, it sure seems like the kind of monster he'd keep, but it's not Fang! It's in the Forbidden area on the Third Floor, it's got three heads and it's huge-!"
"Slow down, what?" I stared at him in disbelief. "You've been on the Third Floor?!"
Somehow, this revelation was much more surprising than some three-headed dog. Dopey, timid Neville Longbottom, sneaking around restricted school corridors? Just the idea of it was hard to imagine, like a friendly werewolf or a depressed Sayori.
"It… was an accident." He admitted, blushing. "Near the start of term, Harry, Ron and Hermione snuck out at night. I think they were looking for Malfoy to try and duel him or something like that, and I'd forgotten the password so I just kinda followed along..."
"Okaaay, I'm with you so far…" I nodded vaguely. Potter and Malfoy's mutual hatred for one another had been well documented throughout the year, and Longbottom's lack of memory was practically known to the entire school. What he was describing could very well have happened far as far as I were aware.
"But they couldn't find Malfoy, and then Mr. Filch showed up and we ran right into the room with… it." Neville shivered. "It was twice the size of Hagrid, I swear! We only barely made it out of there alive, and then Hermione told us it was guarding a trap door, and I think they're going to try getting through it tonight and they're going to die!"
Neville's voice was getting increasingly higher in pitch the longer he spoke, to the point where it felt like I was conversing with a panicked squeaky toy.
I took a moment to consider him and his story. If what he was saying was true, and the Potter Gang actually tried taking on a dog like that, they might very well get ripped to pieces unless someone stopped them!
…
"How do you people even come up with this stuff? First a smuggled dragon and now a three-headed dog." I made up my mind, deciding to stick with my guts and not interfere. Aside from the fact that this whole thing had slightly less credibility than a manga filler arc, it just… felt like the right thing to do, for some reason. "I mean, what's next? Are you gonna try and convince me that the Deathly Hallows are real, too?!"
Longbottom didn't appear very amused.
"It's t- true, though!" He protested, face flashing red. "I saw it myself, promise!"
"Eh, they were probably just playing a prank on ya." I justified myself. "There's no way Hogwarts would have something that dangerous here."
Well, except for Peeves. And the Forbidden Forest, if the rumors I've heard are true. Aaand the fake stair step, if your name is Sayori.
He opened his mouth to possibly argue the point further, and I was happy to have something distract me from my own contradictory thoughts.
"Look Longbottom," I interrupted before he could get a word out, lazily wagging my wand as a reminder I still had it pointed at him. "I'm not going to let you leave and snitch on Potter, so you have a choice here: give it up already and get comfy yourself, or I'll make you."
He seemed to consider his "options" for a moment or two, before eventually deflating in resignation and shifted into a half-laying, half-sitting position.
No sooner had he done so when a small, four-legged creature revealed itself to us, having just finished its apparent climb over the backrest of the couch. Walking slowly but determinedly, it began inching its way toward Neville, finishing its journey with a mighty jump directly into the confines of his lap.
"…Trevor?" The boy whispered in a mixture of disbelief and amazement as the tiny toad finished settling itself into a restful position, oblivious to the both of us staring.
"Huh. How about that." I commented, kicking my feet into a more comfortable position as well.
It looked like we were gonna be here a while.