Chapter 18

Dungeons and Detention

Moving through the castle while wearing the invisibility cloak proved slow but thrilling. Curfew wasn't for another twenty-five minutes so they didn't need to sneak, but the act of hiding in plain sight as a pair of Prefects walked by brought Hermione and Neville immense pleasure.

They reached the painting of a fruit bowl without incident and, after glancing about, Hermione reached out from underneath the cloak to gently brush her finger across the yellow-green pear painted between some strawberries and a pair of knobbly apples.

With an audible laugh, the pear began to squirm. As they watched, it transformed into a physical doorknob, protruding from the canvas. Hermione looked at Neville and he gave her an affirmative nod. So Hermione turned the knob and the painting swung open like a door.

Despite what she'd told Neville, Hermione had a pretty good idea of what lay behind this secret door. The blank spot on her map of the fifth floor seemed to correspond with the Great Hall so she assumed the kitchens must be contained somewhere in the unplottable section.

She had been right, the opening painting revealed an entrance into a huge room. It was only one story tall, but otherwise its proportions matched the Great Hall's. Four long tables were laid out in the same positions as the house tables four stories below, but the edges of the room were significantly more crowded.

Gigantic brick ovens sat in intervals along the west wall making the room uncomfortably warm. Between each oven sat shelves full of ingredients, cupboards filled with dishes, and what Hermione suspected were iceboxes based on the frost coating their sides.

None of these details interested Hermione at the time. Instead she gazed with amazement at the hundreds of elves bustling throughout the room.

They were shorter than Hermione had expected, each of them less than a meter tall. Each had enormous, bat-like ears and eyes the size of tennis balls. Their skin was gray, though a layer of fine green hairs covered most of their exposed skin. Each elf wore some kind of thick white toga held in place by a golden pin stamped with the Hogwarts coat of arms and a braided rope around their tiny waists.

A nearby elf turned in their direction with a look of confusion. It took Hermione a few seconds to remember they were invisible. Slipping out from under the cloak, she stepped into the kitchen and revealed herself. The elf jumped in surprise and let out a little squeak. This drew the attention of three more elves who hurried over, crowding around Hermione.

With a deep bow, the elf she'd startled spoke, "Hello young master, is there something I can do for you?" The elf's voice was ridiculously high pitched, making Hermione think of how people sounded after inhaling the helium from party balloons.

Not having expected to immediately encounter an elf, Hermione said, "Um, I just wanted to look around," After a pause she added, "Thanks for all the great food. You're amazing cooks."

At this simple compliment, all four of the elves gasped, hands covering their mouths in a truly comical fashion.

The elf who had first spoken nervously cleared their throat and squeakily said, "Oh young master, please, do not waste compliments on the likes of us. We are happy to serve, no, lucky to serve the young witches and wizards of Hogwarts!"

Hermione blinked, when she'd read accounts that described house-elves as a subservient and docile species, she had assumed it to be a biased, exaggerated view. Seeing the behavior of these elves, she wasn't sure what to think.

"Well, you deserve the compliment. My mother would be horrified to see how many sweets I ate tonight but I couldn't stop myself. Those were the best eclairs I've ever eaten."

Neville, who had taken off the cloak, stepped up beside Hermione and said, "I agree, any chance there's some left?"

The elves appeared startled by Neville's sudden appearance, but after he spoke, they seemed to relax.

"Of course, young master!" The elf exclaimed, clapping their hands which prompted the other three elves to rush off, "What else can we do for you?"

Hermione glared at Neville but he didn't notice, instead saying, "I guess I wouldn't say no to more of the carrot cake."

"Of course!"

As the elf hurried towards the closest icebox, Hermione moved quickly. She drew an envelope and a bottle of ink from her bag. From inside the envelope she retrieved her map, which was currently smaller than her palm. Ignoring Neville and the elves, Hermione enlarged the map and quickly cast the cartography spell. As with Gryffindor Tower, her spell managed to map the unplottable section once she had physically entered and seen the space.

Hermione had just finished packing up her ink and map when three of the elves returned carrying a bag bursting with eclairs.

"Thanks!" Neville said with enthusiasm, "That was fast. My Gran is always saying she wants a house-elf. She's not exactly the best cook and her cleaning spells always leave behind a bit of dust."

"Neville, stop taking advantage of them! They already work too hard without proper compensation," Hermione said angrily, "they're practically slaves!"

Neville looked abashed but also confused by her chastisement. The elves' reaction was even more intense. They glared at Hermione, appearing offended by her comments. The fourth elf had returned with a box containing an entire cake. They handed Neville the food and then, with bows and gracious words, they politely pushed the two students out of the kitchen.

Once the painting had swung back into place against the wall, the doorknob became a two dimensional pear once again.

Hermione rounded on Neville, "I wanted to talk with them some more, why were you being gluttonous and ordering them around?"

Neville frowned, "Hermione, I'm not sure you understand. House-elves enjoy being helpful. Didn't you notice they were uncomfortable with the things you were saying? I don't think they made us leave because I asked for food."

Speaking louder, Hermione said, "Don't call them House-elves, they're just elves."

Neville and Hermione began to argue. She hadn't actually read much about elves, but internally, Hermione had begun associating their poor treatment with the mistreatment of muggle-borns. Neville tried to be reasonable, but his comments just made Hermione angrier until she was shouting, voice echoing through the hallway.

By the time they noticed Filch, it was too late. The invisibility cloak was stuffed into Neville's bag, useless to them now.

"Oi!" Filch called, cutting Hermione off mid tirade, "What have we got here?"

The hunched man with lanky hair smiled an unpleasant grin, revealing yellow teeth, "Two first-years eh?" He pulled out a pocket watch and after glancing down at its scratched up face, his smile grew broader, "Would you look at that, two minutes to nine o'clock, looks like you two are going to miss curfew."

Turning his ugly smile on Neville, Filch cackled, taking in the cake and eclairs, "Oh ho! Not just out late but stealing food as well! Let's see what McGonagall and Flitwick think of this. Follow me."

Filch took them down two floors to a door marked, 'Professors Only'. He knocked and a soon after, Professor Sprout opened it. She raised her eyebrows, taking in the three of them, then turned and called, "Minerva, Filius, it's for you."

Professor McGonagall and Flitwick came out into the Hallway. Flitwick's nose looked noticeably red, and McGonagall kept hiccuping. It seemed the teachers were having their own late night Solstice celebration. Neville and Hermione didn't say much, resigned to the fact that they'd been caught while quite blatantly breaking the rules.

"Detention for both of you," McGonagall said, trying to look severe though she kept swaying and looked a bit unsteady on her feet.

She was about to dismiss them when, from around the corner, three students appeared. A pair of Slytherin Prefects flanked Terry Boot on either side, making him look very small. He had clearly been crying and he sniffled as they approached.

"What's this now?" Flitwick asked the Prefects.

"Caught this first-year Ravenclaw hanging out in the Slytherin common room," one of the Prefects explained, "I think his first-year friends let him in, but they played innocent, claiming Boot here must have followed them down after dinner."

Flitwick shook his head in disappointment, "Mr Boot, while I'm not against inter-house friendships, entering another house's common room is against multiple school rules. You will serve detention tomorrow along with these two."

Flitwick waved a hand at Hermione and Neville causing Terry's eyes to widen in shock as he noticed them. They were dismissed by the Professors and told to return directly to their common rooms.

Hermione and Terry did not speak to each other as they walked back to Ravenclaw Tower, but Hermione silently considered, "If Terry was in the Slytherin common room, maybe he heard the password. Could I trick him into telling me? Or maybe I should learn some Occlumency."

They arrived at the door with no handle and Terry placed his palm on the wood. The bronze eagle's head opened its beak and said, "The more you take away, the larger I will be, put me in your boat and we will sink into the sea."

Terry paused, seeming to consider the new riddle but Hermione knew the answer immediately and grew impatient, "A hole."

Her answer was correct and the door swung open. Terry looked as though he were about to speak again, but Hermione wasn't interested in anything he had to say. She strode directly across the common room and headed up the stairs and straight to bed.

Their detention took place the following morning at ten o'clock. While many of the Hogwarts residents slept in, Hermione put on her winter cloak and a pair of gloves. She made her way through the castle and down the sloping hillside that led down to the Forbidden Forest. A small log cabin had been built on the edge of the forest. Its small windows were frosted over and icicles hung from the roof.

The giant man named Hagrid emerged from within, a huge boarhound at his side. He saw Hermione and waved jovially.

Hermione could tell he was smiling beneath his thick bristly beard as he said, "Yer the first one here. What's yer name, little miss?"

A few birds in a nearby bush took flight as Hagrid's booming voice rang out. He wore the same brown coat and carried the same pink umbrella Hermione had seen him with when she visited Diagon Alley.

Smiling back up at Hagrid, Hermione said, "I'm Hermione Granger, sir. What exactly is our punishment going to be? I thought we'd have to write lines or clean or something like that."

Hagrid chuckled, "Nah, nothing like that. I'll explain when the other two get here."

They did not have to wait long. A minute later, Hermione spotted two figures making their way down to Hagrid's cabin. Neville and Terry seemed to be in deep discussion as they arrived.

They ceased chatting when Hagrid spoke, "Alright you lot, today we're going to be collecting corpses from the forest. You," Hagrid pointed a finger the size of Hermione's wrist towards Neville, "What's your name?"

"Um, Neville Longbottom." He answered, looking terrified by Hagrid or his comment about corpses.

"Right, well then Longbottom, you're with me. And you," He pointed at Terry who stammered out his own name, "Boot eh? Well Boot, you and Granger will be partners. Bring the bodies back here and put them inside," Hagrid gestured to his cabin.

"But sir," Terry interjected, nervously eyeing the nearby trees, "We aren't supposed to go into the forest, there's dangerous creatures in there."

Dismissively waiving a hand the size of a dinner plate, Hagrid explained, "Don't yah fret. We're only gonna go about half a mile in, plus it's daylight. Nothing too nasty comes out during the day."

With that, Hagrid turned and walked into the forest. The three first-years looked at eachother then hurried after the giant 's words did not provide them much reassurance. The woods grew dim as they walked, overhead branches blocking out much of the morning light.

"Uh, sir? What kind of animal corpse are we looking for?" Hermione asked tentatively after they'd been walking for about ten minutes.

Hagrid did not answer, instead he grunted, leaned down, and stuck his finger into a small pool of silvery liquid between his feet. He glanced about, then set off through the underbrush. The students followed him until they came to a clearing. Once they'd taken in the gruesome scene, Hagrid's comments made sense.

The woods around them had grown darker the further they walked, but there was still enough light to make out three unicorns lying on the ground before them. Their coats were white with a hint of gold. Their brilliant white manes and tails almost seemed to glow, and their golden, spiraling horns were almost two feet long.

Each unicorn had gouges along their flanks, and their throats had been ripped out. Silvery blood coated the forest floor, and it let off an unexpectedly pleasant scent. The smell reminded Hermione of citrus and honey.

Upon seeing the bodies, Neville retched, but Hagrid ignored this and explained, "Something's been killing unicorns. I found the first one a month ago and there's been six more since then n'cluding these three."

He shook his head, looking disturbed, then continued, "Whatevers doing this and I will work on collecting these three. Granger and Boot, follow that trail for about five minutes," He gestured further into the forest where Hermione could see more splotches and puddles of magical horse blood marking the trail of another injured unicorn, "I think one got away, but it won't have made it far bleeding like that."

Terry, face twisted with disgust, opened his mouth as if to argue. He closed it before speaking when Hagrid leaned down and picked up the largest of the dead unicorns, throwing it casually over his shoulder. He did not seem to care about the metallic blood that splattered onto his coat.

"Feel free to use magic, these poor beauties are too big for you little ones to carry," Hagrid said and then gave the boarhound a pat on his hindquarters, sending him towards Hermione and Terry, "Fang, you go with them," he winked at Hermione and added, "His bark sounds tough enough to scare off most of the things in these woods, but honestly, he's a coward."

Nervous, Hermione and Terry followed the occasional patches of blood into the forest as Neville worked on levitating one of the unicorn bodies.

They had been walking for a few minutes, Fang leading the way, when Terry spoke, "Hey, Hermione… I, um. I wanted to ask you something."

"Is now really the time?" Hermione asked, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

Terry stepped over a log before saying, "Maybe not, but I've actually been wanting to talk with you for a while."

Curious, Hermione paused, looking at Terry. He looked quite awkward, fidgeting under her gaze. From a few paces ahead, Fang let out a deep growl.

Hermione spun, lifted her wand and whispered, "Lumos."

The cone of light her spell produced illuminated Fang, who's hackles were raised, and behind him, a unicorn laying across the roots of an old oak tree. Head hidden in shadow, the horned horse was still moving, occasionally arching its back or kicking out with a hoof.

Hermione was about to suggest they go back to tell Hagrid it was alive, when Terry suddenly screeched, "What is that?"

As if in response to his voice, what Hermione had mistaken for a shadow near the unicorn's head began to stretch and writhe. The pool of darkness began sliding across the ground towards them with alarming speed.

Fang began to let out deep, booming barks but when the pool of shadow neared his paws, he whimpered, turned, and ran away. As Fang sprinted past Hermione, she cast a spell.

The night before, Hermione had admitted to herself that her Jelly-leg-jinx was an inadequate spell for defending herself. She hadn't determined why she struggled with certain types of magic, but Hermione had decided that until she learned more, she should stick to her strengths.

"Incendio!" She shouted, the pale yellow light of her previous spell fading, replaced by a brighter, red-orange glow as a jet of fire shot from Hermione's wand.

She had discovered this charm in 'Standard Book of Spells, Year Five', but hadn't found anywhere she could practice such a potentially dangerous spell.

Hermione's feeling of triumph at successfully casting the charm on her first attempt was quickly replaced with horror. Her fire spell hit the shadow creature directly in the center of its dark form, but nothing happened. The fire disappeared and, before Hermione could move or cast another spell, the shadow crossed the space between them and began to engulf her feet.

Her wand began vibrating, and Hermione's fear seemed to double as the wand's own terror harmonized with her own. Hermione had grown somewhat used to her wand sending waves of emotion through her, especially around Madam Pince, but what she felt now was more powerful by magnitudes. Not only was it more powerful, this time words accompanied the emotion.

As she lost consciousness, a single sentence was repeatedly shouted directly into her mind, "HE IS AWAKE! HE IS AWAKE! HE IS AWAKE! HE IS AWAKE!"

When she came to, Terry was kneeling over her saying, "Hermione, Hermione, wake up!" His sandy blonde hair hanging around his concerned face.

"Terry?" Hermione said groggily, "What's going on?"

She sat up, wincing at the pain in her right hand. She forced her grip to relax, placing her wand in the pocket of her robes.

He wasn't speaking loudly, but the fear and urgency in Terry's voice were easy to hear, "That thing started to climb up your legs and you just, fell over. Then for some reason it ran, or, I don't know, scurried off."

Hermione climbed to her feet, which felt numb, "How long was I out? Which way did it go?" She asked, looking about and seeing nothing but trees and bushes.

Terry pointed to the left, and Hermione pulled her wand back out, using the 'Lumos' spell to shine light in that direction.

"You woke up right after it left," Terry said, obviously close to panicking, "But who cares what way it went? We need to run!"

Hermione understood his feelings but still she didn't move, instead using her wand light to illuminate the surrounding area made dim by the thick overhead canopy. She watched for any sign of movement.

For a second, she thought she saw a flash of something purple, but it was gone so quickly Hermione couldn't be sure it wasn't a falling leaf or a bird.

Finally, she turned to Terry and said, "Okay, we can go, but we need to deal with that."

Hermione pointed her wand at the unicorn they had been searching for. It no longer moved through blood still flowed from its torn throat.

"Fine!" Terry said loudly, hands shaking, "Just hurry, please!"

Hermione pointed her wand at the unicorn. It was at least twenty feet away but with a whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa," it came floating towards them.

With that, they turned and hurried back the way they'd come. At one point, a rustling in the nearby bushes made Hermione scream in fright, thinking the shadow monster had returned. Thankfully, it was just Fang the boarhound. He cowered between Hermione and Terry as they continued on, whimpering softly, tail tucked between his legs.

Neville and Hagrid were waiting for them when they returned to the clearing. All of the unicorns had been removed, but the blood still coated the forest floor. Hermione released the levitation charm and let her own unicorn drop to the ground.

"Took yer time did yah?" Hagrid asked, a suspicious look on his scruffy face.

Terry began to tell the story of what happened, so Hermione sat down on a fallen tree. She felt exhausted. The walk back had helped bring feeling back to her feet, so they no longer felt numb. Unfortunately, her lower half still felt cold to the touch and Hermione's teeth had begun chattering.

"What was that thing?" Hermione wondered as Terry described her fire spell and the moving shadow, "It felt as though my wand was saying, 'He is awake', the same thing it said when we touched in my dream."

"Right then, let's get going," Hagrid barked, leaning over to scoop up the unicorn Hermione had brought back, "I gotta report this to Dumbledore, yer detention is over."

With that he began jogging back towards the edge of the forest. Being over ten feet tall, Hagrid's stride was enormous. Hermione, Neville, and Terry followed as best they could, forced to sprint in order to keep up. Tree branches snagged their robes and scratched their faces as they ran. The roots of trees did their best to trip the group of first-years, but somehow they exited the forest without major injury.

Hagrid paused, dropping the unicorn onto the grass with a meaty 'thump', then gave them instructions, "Put this in my cabin, you can get back to the castle on yer own!"

He set off towards the castle at a tremendous speed. Hermione wasn't sure she could have kept up with him even if she were on her bike going downhill.

Neville and Terry continued discussing what had happened on the way back up the sloping lawn to the castle. Lost in thought, Hermione barely participated in the conversation. When they reached the Entrance Hall they Neville parted ways with them and they headed back to their respective common rooms.

Hermione and Terry walked in silence for a time, but when they neared Ravenclaw Tower, Terry said, "Hermione, um. Earlier, before everything got… weird. I wanted to talk to you about something. You said you met my Aunt Patricia in Dia-"

Still reeling from the day's events, Hermione had no patience for subtlety and cut Terry off mid sentence, "Yeah, I met her, but we didn't get to know each other too well before she introduced me to the term 'mud-blood'."

Terry's mouth snapped shut, looking like he'd been slapped. He stopped dead in his tracks, letting Hermione get a few paces ahead of him before saying, "I'm sorry she did that."

Hermione turned back at his words, anger in her eyes as she shouted, "Oh, you're sorry? You didn't seem sorry when you called me a mud-blood, or when you hit Neville."

To her annoyance, Terry's eyes filled with tears as he looked up at her. Hermione wanted to storm off or shout at him some more, but his pathetic expression dampened her anger.

With a sigh, Hermione asked, "Fine, you feel bad, is that all?"

After using his sleeve to dry his eyes, Terry cleared his throat and explained, "Listen, I know you think I'm a total git," He gave a half-hearted chuckle, "That makes sense, because I've acted like a total git, but the thing is that wasn't me. Well, I mean, obviously it was me, but…"

Starting to feel impatient, Hermione took advantage of Terry's pause to ask, "What does this have to do with your aunt?"

"Oh, yeah, um," Terry rubbed at his face awkwardly, "Well the night we arrived at Hogwarts, I sent an owl to my Aunt Patricia. She'd always been my favorite relative and… well I wanted to tell her about you."

Confused, Hermione said, "But you didn't even know I was a muggle-born until the first day of classes, right?"

Terry shook his head, looking even more uncomfortable, "No, I didn't. But when we were on the train, you said you'd met her, and you were so talented… Well in my letter, I asked her how she knew you. If I'd left it at that, it would have been fine, but I also mentioned how you taught us a spell, and how you were bound to be the smartest kid in our year."

Terry's cheeks flushed and he went silent, staring down at the floor. Hermione, still confused, wasn't sure what to say. A pair of older boys walked by, chatting and laughing, oblivious to the emotional first-years.

After they'd moved out of earshot, Terry continued, "She wrote back immediately and she wasn't pleased," he paused, scowling, "She said my parents would be disgusted if they knew I was praising a mud-, I mean, a muggle-born, and that if I didn't outperform you in all my classes, I wasn't worthy of the family name. After that, all the kids I knew from before Hogwarts started making muggle-born jokes and claiming their parents were Death-Eaters."

This bit caught Hermione's attention, and she had to resist the desire to interpret Terry's ramblings to ask whose parents had sided directly with Voldemort.

"I let Draco goad me into harassing Neville, and then I called you, uh, you know. And… I'm sorry."

She waited, but this time Terry seemed to have run out of words. He stood with hands in the pockets of his robes not meeting Hermione's eyes, just staring at the floor.

After some consideration, Hermione said, "Here's the thing, I'm not ready to forgive you or be your friend," she paused and Terry glanced up, a miserable look on his face, "But," Hermione continued, tone softening, "I'll give you another chance. To tell you the truth, there's a… project I could use your help with."

A note of hope crept into Terry's voice as he said, "Uh, sure, whatever you need, Hermione."

Smiling, Hermione pulled a pen and a scrap of paper from her pocket, "So, where exactly is the Slytherin common room?"

Hours later, Neville and Hermione crept slowly down a first-floor corridor underneath the invisibility cloak. It had taken some convincing to get Neville on board with her plan, but in the end he had agreed.

As they moved by a door marked, 'Severus Snape, Potions Master, Head of Slytherin House', Hermione held her breath, but Snape did not appear. Instead, they continued until they passed both a suit of armor and a painting depicting the cliffs of England's southern coast. Here they turned left. At the end of this shorter hallway an unmarked wooden door led them to a staircase leading down into the dungeons.

Thr stairs took them down to a series dungeon cells, metal bars still in place unlike those in their Potions classroom. The cells were empty, but the sight of them still creeped Hermione out.

Neville seemed to feel the same way, whispering, "We could turn around, find a different time to try this."

Hermione shook her head and quietly said, "No, everyone will be back from break tomorrow and the common rooms will be too full. It has to be tonight."

What she didn't mention was Madam Pince's cryptic warning that someone else might be trying to beat her to Rowena's Room. She also didn't mention the intensity with which her wand seemed to be prompting her to act.

They continued following Terry's directions until they found themselves standing in front of an unlocked cell. They stepped inside, Neville wincing as the hinges of the rusted door let out a squealing noise.

"I hope Terry's change of heart was genuine," Hermione murmured as she stepped up to the stone wall at the back of the cell.

Her last minute preparations felt suddenly inadequate. She tugged at the Slytherin robes she'd managed to steal from the laundry room, annoyed that they were too small. She looked at Neville, but couldn't read the expression on his face. This wasn't because he was being stoic, but because of her Disillusionment Charm acting as an extra precaution in case the invisibility cloak somehow came off.

After taking three deep breaths while mentally reciting the first fifty digits of pi, Hermione whispered, "Purity."

To her relief, the password provided by Terry worked, and with a low grinding sound, the section of wall before them moved upward. It disappeared from view into the stone ceiling and, to Hermione's dismay, revealed the confused faces of Vincent Crabb and Gregory Goyle.

Both of the Slytherin boys were heavy-set, though Gregory was significantly taller. As their eyes stared directly at her, Hermione felt Neville start to move. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him slowly to the side, pushing their backs up against the rusted iron bars of the cell.

Heart pounding, Hermione held her breath as the two first-year boys walked past them, still looking perplexed.

"Must have been a ghost," Gregory mumbled as Vincent opened the door to the cell and they began to walk off.

The wall began to descend from the ceiling and this time Neville grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her forward. They both ducked under the lowering wall and found themselves in a common room decorated with the silver and green of Slytherin house.