Chapter Four
Professor Snape led me to his office, the last place I wanted to be. I had been working up excuses the whole long walk, but they each got more outrageous as they chased each other around my mind. Soon, too soon for comfort, Snape was telling me to sit down, which I did, as he took a seat behind his desk. "Now, tell me what you were doing in the library when you should have been in Gryffindor tower with your classmates," he said with an uncomfortable sneer.

"I was looking for a book," I lied. I refrained from thinking anything, because I knew what the thoughts would sound like.

"What kind of book?" Snape asked.

"On owls," I replied slowly. On owls?

"Why exactly were you searching for a book on owls? Don't you know how to take care of yours?" Snape inquired smartly. You've got a point, I thought.

"Well, yes, but I wanted to know how big of a distance she could cover," I told him.

"Did you not think to inquire after that when you purchased her?" Snape asked. That would have been a good idea, I thought.

"Not really," I replied. Snape just looked at me, but there was laughter dancing in his stare.

"Did you find out what you wanted to know?"

"No," I told him helplessly. He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.

"I see." Then he got up to pace the room. I hate when teachers do that, nothing good ever follows. "So," he began, "you went to the library when you should have been in Gryffindor tower, when Madam Pince wasn't there, to look for information that you didn't find. Is that about correct?" I wanted to smack him but decided against it.

"Yes, sir," was all I could say.

"You weren't meeting anyone there, were you?"

"No, sir," I lied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir. Why? Did you think you saw someone?"

"No, I thought I heard Lisa Davis's voice." I didn't say anything.

"May I go now, sir?" I asked after a minute or so.

"Yes," Snape replied, but as I made to leave the dungeon he called out, "Caillet." I turned and looked at him. "Note that five points will be taken from Gryffindor, and feel lucky I didn't take more." Or give me detention, I thought. I was a bit relieved to be honest. I had thought he was going to have me expelled or something. I walked back to Gryffindor tower alone, silent.

By the time I got back into the common room it was 9:00. "What happened?" Hermione asked me as I sat down.

"I got lost," I lied lamely. It was going to be a long year.
It had been about a week since my trouble with Snape. Luckily, no one had noticed that there was now seven points missing instead of two. I hadn't seen Lisa or Laura since that night, and I knew that I only had to face Lisa during Potions.

That was until I saw the notice.

Pinned up in the Gryffindor common room was a notice that Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning to fly together. Great. I groaned with the rest and plopped down in an armchair.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't objecting to flying. As a matter-of- fact, I was rather looking forward to learning to fly. However, I was objecting to learning with the Slytherins, with Lisa. Granted, I had already made a fool of myself in front of her more times than I care to remember, learning to use a sword is one of them, but we're talking about flying here. Knowing my luck I would slide off the end of my broom and break a bone or something. She'd get a kick out of that.

The knowledge that I wasn't the only person who had never flown before gave me a little comfort. Actually, it gave me a lot of comfort. Take Neville for example. His grandmother had never even let him near a broomstick, seeing as how Neville had enough accidents with both feet on the ground.

Hermione was nervous because flying was one thing you couldn't learn by heart out of a book. She tried of course, boring us with flying tips that she had gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages at breakfast on Thursday. Neville hung on to her every word, but the rest of us were quite pleased when she was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed us all a glass ball the size of a large marble, which was full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things --- this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red --- oh . . ." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, " . . . you've forgotten something . . ."

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. Lisa was close behind him with a rather cold smirk on her face. Now, Lisa is my best friend in the whole world, and she's a good actress as well. These are the reasons why I didn't want her hanging out with Malfoy's crowd. It would ruin her to the point of total destruction. That's exactly why I wanted to get up and smack the grin off of her face.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet, just praying for a reason to hit Malfoy. I got to my feet to hit Lisa. Professor McGonagall, however, could spot trouble a mile away and was on the scene in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall professor," Neville explained.

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he lied, and then he sloped away with Crabbe, Goyle, and Lisa behind him. We all took our seats again and Professor McGonagall left.
At three-thirty that afternoon, all of the Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for our first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under our feet as we made our way down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance. The forest reminded me a lot of Fangorn Forest. A shudder ran up my spine in remembrance and I blocked such memories out of my mind, at least for now.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. I saw Lisa still standing near Malfoy with the same smirk on her face. Now I really wanted to slap her. I chose the spot right across from her and gave her a good stare down. Her smile never faltered, but the gleam in her eyes did. I was the only one who noticed any difference.

Madam Hooch, our teacher, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. Like Tobias, I thought. I shook the thought out of my head and tried not to look in her eyes.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Everyone stepped up beside a broomstick. I looked down at mine; it didn't look too promising. It was old, there was no doubt about that, and there were twigs sticking out at odd angles here and there. I looked up at Lisa again. We grinned at each other and waited for instructions.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," Madam Hooch called at the front, "and say 'UP!'"

"UP!" everyone shouted. I suppose after all of the ordeals we had been through Lisa and I had gotten more forceful because our brooms shot straight into our grasp. Ours were only a couple of the few that did so, however. We looked around and saw that Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Brooms must be able to sense when you're afraid; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only to clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground. Malfoy's broom jumped into his hand on his second try, and he seemed quite pleased with himself. Lisa looked at him and made a face of disgust. I stifled a laugh.

Madam Hooch then showed us how to mount our brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting everyone's grip. Lisa and I hit it head on, and were rather delighted, to say the least, when Madam Hooch told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch instructed. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle --- three --- two ---"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle --- twelve feet --- twenty feet. I could see his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and ---

WHAM --- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. I had covered my face in the process of his fall but now had the nerve to look.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," she muttered. "Come on, boy --- it's all right, up you get." Now, don't think she said it harshly, she wasn't angry. She said it with as much compassion as she could and then helped him gently off the ground.

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on dear."

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?"

The other Slytherins joined in, including Lisa. I rounded on all of them.

"Shut-up Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil before I could.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" inquired Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

"Better than sticking up for greased down jackasses," I shot back, referring to Malfoy of course. Ever single Slytherin within hearing distance rounded on me. Not to worry, I'd had worse odds before, of course, I'd had my sword with me at the time.

Lisa was the first to take action. She hit me, hard. A wink went along with it, but I didn't care. I punched her back. We had a hold on each other's hair when Malfoy said, "Look!" and darted forward to snatch something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry said quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find --- how about --- up a tree?"

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He definitely could ride well, but I was past the point of caring, my head was beginning to hurt. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak Malfoy called, "Come and get it Potter!"

Harry grabbed his broom.

"No!" Hermione Granger shouted. "Madam Hooch told us not to move --- you'll get us all into trouble."

Harry ignored her, naturally. He mounted his broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared. Everyone watched as he pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and a few girls gasped in our little crowd, and Ron gave an admiring whoop.

I didn't see exactly what happened from that point because Lisa tackled me to the ground and we were soon in all out combat. She was probably more deadly than me, but I'd been in too many battles not to know how to quickly dodge any life threatening blows, which was what Lisa was throwing. Soon it was no longer a game, we were actually fighting one another. We had each other in a very painful grip on the ground and each seemed to be trying to strangle the other. I could taste blood in my mouth, and my head felt like it was splitting open. I gasped for air and coughed. Blood spluttered onto Lisa's face and, realizing that she was actually killing me, she released her grip. There were tears on my cheeks and hers as well.

"HARRY POTTER!" Professor McGonagall's strict voice brought us back to the scene around us. Harry and Malfoy were both back on the ground, Harry with the Remembrall clutched in his fist. Professor McGonagall was running toward us. I didn't have the strength to get up. Apparently Lisa didn't either.

"Never --- in all my time at Hogwarts ---"

Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, " --- how dare you --- might have broken your neck ---"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor ---"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil ---"

"But Malfoy ---"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."

As Professor McGonagall began to lead Harry away, she caught sight of Lisa and me. She stopped in shock. "Miss Caillet? Miss Davis?" We looked helplessly up at her. "You two come with me as well."

With much difficulty Lisa and I got up off the ground. I was out; there was no question about it. Maybe I could stay with Hagrid, help him out. And wait to die, I thought. I held my head as we walked, both in shame and in agony. Everyone was silent. The echoes of our footfalls on the stone floor resonated for all to hear. It was the walk of shame.

Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still no one said a word. Doors were wrenched open and we were led along corridors. I didn't think about where we were going, I couldn't. I began to cry with helplessness and pain. I wanted to go home, now!

Suddenly we came to a stop in front of the school hospital. "You two, go inside. I'll be by soon to discuss your punishment." Then Professor McGonagall walked off with Harry and Lisa and I were left outside the hospital. I continued to cry. I was mad at Lisa, yet I still wanted her company, her condolence. I looked at her, she looked at me.

"I'm sorry," we said together, and then we embraced. I realized that she had been crying as well. After we released one another no eye contact was made, no verbal interaction. We just simply opened the door and walked into the hospital.

I think it's safe to say that I got the worse end of the fight. I was in definite pain and the potions that Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, forced down my throat didn't help my stomach any. Needless to say, by the time I got back to Gryffindor tower, I felt like shit.

Professor McGonagall had come by and talked to Lisa and me. She only took a point away from each house, thank God. We got out of detention somehow, but every time she saw me in her class from that day forward, there was a look of disappointment in her eyes. That was worse than any punishment she could have given.

At dinner that night I hardly ate anything. What I did manage to get down, and keep down, was plenty to hold me over until the next morning. Harry was telling Ron about what had happened after McGonagall had led him inside.

"You're joking," Ron said. "Seeker? But first years never --- you must be the youngest house player in about ---"

"--- a century," Harry finished, shoveling pie into his mouth. I couldn't watch, it made me sick. "Wood told me."

Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at Harry, forgetting entirely about the pie on his plate.

"I start training next week," Harry continued. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.

"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too --- Beaters."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," Fred remarked. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

Okay, let's just get one thing straight. I was not eavesdropping on the conversations. My hearing just happens to be very good. Besides, they were talking louder than was wise, so don't think I'm a bad person or anything. I was not eavesdropping. Now that we've got that cleared up, on with the story.

Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. I sat up straight with a bit of difficulty and realized Lisa wasn't with them.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry said coolly. There's nothing little about Crabbe and Goyle of course, but in the Great Hall with all the teachers watching there was nothing they could do but crack their knuckles and scowl.

"Speaking of buddies," I intervened, "where's your other little friend?"

"Lisa? She's over at the table recovering from what you did to her." I nearly lost my temper again, but stayed seated nonetheless.

"The only reason Courtney attacked her was because she attacked first, to save your dignity," Harry remarked. "Isn't there anything you can do Malfoy?"

" I'd take you on anytime on my own," Malfoy spat. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only --- no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has," Ron said, wheeling around in his seat. "I'm his second, who's yours?"

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.

"Crabbe," he replied. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other. I relaxed in my seat again and watched them.

"What is a wizard's duel?" Harry asked. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," Ron replied casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. I looked away. He must have seen the look on Harry's face because he quickly added, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested. I laughed.

"Excuse me."

We all three looked up and saw Hermione Granger.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron inquired.

Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying ---"

"Bet you could," Ron muttered.

" --- and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," Harry told her.

"Good bye," Ron said.

Hermione huffed away, and I would have gone with her if I'd had the energy. Instead I decided to talk with her after dinner.
"Hermione, really, there's no point in stopping them. If they don't get in trouble for this today it's just something else tomorrow." I tried to convince Hermione to forget about the duel. It wasn't working.

"I should tell Ron's brother Percy, he's a prefect."

"No! No, no, no!" I took a deep breath. "Okay, you can wait up for them, but not without me."

"Fine." Then we lay awake in bed awaiting midnight.

This probably won't be the last time I ask this, but, why me?
Midnight drew nearer and nearer and Hermione and I snuck down to the common room. We heard someone and came to a halt. If I had remembered that she was going to say something, I would have tried to shut Hermione up. Instead, she said, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

She lit the lamp that she'd brought down. It lit her pink bathrobe and her frown. It lit up my flannel pajamas and thorough embarrassment.

"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed, both of you."

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped. "Percy --- he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

"Oh? And what made you change your mind?" Ron asked smugly.

"Courtney," Hermione replied. Harry and Ron both looked at me. Instinct told me to look at the floor, but instead I continued looking at them.

"Come on," Harry said to Ron. Then they pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady that covered the entrance to Gryffindor tower and climbed through the hole.

I was all for going back to bed, but Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed the two boys through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose. I didn't have much of a choice; I went out after her.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go away." I just stood there quietly.

"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so ---"

No one ever found out what they were because Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and we were all locked out of Gryffindor tower.

"Now what are we going to do?" she asked me shrilly. I shrugged and turned to Harry and Ron.

"That's your problem," Ron told her. "We've got to go, we're going to be late." Before they could get very far, I stopped them.

"Do you mind if I tag along? Maybe I could be of some use." They both shrugged in reply and continued walking. Hermione looked outraged, but I simply waved at her and shrugged again. There was nothing else for it, we had to go.

We hadn't reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with us.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"You are not."

"You let her come," Hermione said, pointing to me.

"She didn't want to rat us out!" Ron replied.

Ignoring him, Hermione said, "Besides, d'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up." Notice she said, 'I was trying to stop you.' Apparently I was the enemy now. Oh well, nothing new there.

"You've got some nerve," Ron told her loudly.

"Shut up, both of you!" Harry said sharply. "I heard something."

It was a sort of snuffling.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.

It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as we crept nearer. I rushed over to him to make sure he was all right.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's "Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm?" Harry asked.

"Fine," Neville replied, showing us. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute.

"Good --- well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later ---"

"Don't leave me!" Neville cried, scrambling to his feet. "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already.

"Just let him come," I told them. "If any of us get caught Gryffindor's in trouble anyway. We might as well stay together."

Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione, Neville, and then me.

"If any of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned the Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned all of us forward.

We flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn we expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but we got lucky. We sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. We edged along the walls, keeping our eyes on the doors at either end of the room. I saw Harry take his wand out, a smart move in my opinion. The minutes crept by though, and still no sign of Malfoy.

Maybe it was because of my near fatal fight with Lisa, or maybe I was just stressed, but one way or the other it never occurred to me to tell everyone that we had entered a trap. That is, until it was too late.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made us all jump. I reached for my wand as Harry raised his. Then we heard someone speak --- and it sure as hell wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Harry began waving madly at the rest of us to follow his as quickly as possible; we scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when we heard Filch enter the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere," we heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

"This way!" Harry mouthed to all of us and, petrified, we began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. We could hear Filch getting nearer. I began to pick up my pace and was soon in front of Harry.

Quite suddenly and painfully I rammed into something, something kind of squishy. I let out a startled yelp, which gave Neville a bit of a scare, and he rammed into Ron and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.

The clanging, crashing, and cursing was enough to wake the whole castle.

"RUN!" Harry yelled.

And that's just what we did.

Not looking back to see whether Filch was following we swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead again. I knew he had no idea where he was leading us, but we ripped through a tapestry and found ourselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near our Charms classroom, which we all knew was miles from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.

"I --- told --- you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I --- told --- you."

"Hermione, be quiet for just one minute," I snapped, hardly out of breath. "I want to know who the hell I bumped into." I took a step closer to the person and saw before me a particularly familiar face. "Oh hell no! Hell no! Lisa! Haven't we been through enough today?" She smiled.

"I came to warn you," she whispered so that only I could hear her.

"A little late for that, don't you think?" I said hysterically.

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," Ron said suddenly, "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione remarked. "You realize that, don't you Harry? He was never going to meet you --- Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

"I suppose you helped him?" Ron said to Lisa. I sensed a fight coming on and intervened.

"It doesn't matter, Ron. What matters is that we get back to Gryffindor tower."

"She's right," Harry said. "Let's go."

It wasn't going to be that simple, naturally. We hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of us.

It was Peeves. He caught sight of us and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves --- please --- you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackled. That was the point!

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," snapped Ron. He took a swipe at Peeves, I tried to stop him, but ---

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Peeves, we ran for our lives, right to the end of the corridor where we slammed into a door --- and it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned, as we pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

We could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeve's shouts.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed my wand, which I had forgotten I had in my hand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and the door swung open --- we all piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed our ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go Peeves?" Filch was asking. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please.'"

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right --- please."

"NOTHING! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And we heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay -- - get off, Neville!" Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?"

We all turned around to look at Neville --- and we all saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, I was sure we had all walked into a nightmare --- this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

We weren't in a room, as we had assumed. We were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. We now knew why it was forbidden.

We were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in our direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs. Now, I've seen my share of strange creatures, we all have, but this three-headed dog I think tops them all.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at us. We all knew the only reason why we weren't already dead was that our sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

Three people went for the doorknob at the same time: Harry, Lisa, and me. Between Filch and death, we all chose Filch.

We fell backward --- Harry slammed the door shut, and we ran, we almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for us somewhere else, because we didn't see him anywhere, but we hardly cared --- all we wanted to do was put as much space as possible between us and that monster. Lisa parted from our group at some point during our get-away. I hadn't noticed when. We didn't stop running until we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at the bathrobes hanging off shoulders and our flushed, sweaty faces.

"Never mind that --- pig snout, pig snout!" we all yelled the password together. The portrait swung forward and we scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs. Jeez, and I thought Helm's Deep would be training enough for anything. Boy was I wrong!

It took a while for any of use to say anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron said finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped.

"I do," I said drowsily, raising my hand a bit. She sighed in exasperation.

"Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. I smiled. " I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."

She stood up, glaring at us all.

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed --- or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron stared after her, his mouth open.

"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

"Don't worry, she'll get better," I promised. Then I yawned and stood up. "I think I'll go to bed as well. Good night all." No one replied. Harry was deep in thought, Ron was pissed off, and Neville was still speechless. I climbed the spiral staircase up to the girls' dormitories. It had been a very interesting day.

I climbed into bed and shut my eyes. Suddenly, I turned onto my side and looked at Hermione. "Why don't you cut the guys some slack?" I asked her quietly.

"What, are you taking their side now?" she asked.

"No, but we're going to be stuck together for seven years, you might as well be friendly with each other."

No reply.

"All right, then. Good night." I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes again. I hoped Lisa had made it back all right. Then I began to wonder what Laura was doing. Sleeping, like a normal person, I thought. I smiled and drifted off into a restless sleep full of three-headed dogs, ghosts popping out of walls, and green light.

I woke up not a happy camper. I was getting out of my no sleep routine. Where was Aragorn when you needed him?