Harry Potter and the Mystery of Trust

A/N: Right now I'm concentrating on doing some R and NC-17 fics, though a lot of shits involving H and Hr. Hope I pulled it off.

Chapter 4: How?!

"Hurry – get in the cloak," Harry ordered urgently, the two boys got into the cloak, running away from several Deatheaters. Finding out things wasn't an easy task for either Harry or Rich. Peter Pettigrew cowardly and stupidly chased the two boys with all of his troops.

"You can't get away this time Potter. You're father's cloak won't do you good this time," Peter squealed with delight, shooting spells after spells at his prey.

"Damn, where the bloody hell is the secret entrance," Rich said angrily, looking at the ground whilst dodging other spells.

"Wherever it is, it better-"

"AAAAAHH!" Both boys accidentally dropped into – the secret passage that they desperately searching.



"Are you sure this is the one?" Dumbledore whispered cautiously, as he followed Neville and Hermione. The two Gryffindors nodded. Hermione pointed her finger at the display armour that they followed from the dungeons. It stood still like it wasn't intended to do anything but the three people knew it was formulating an escape.

"Arguo Lemures," Dumbledore pointed his wand at the armour. A faint beam slowly approached the armour. As it made way for its journey, the suit trembled. Hermione and Neville exchanged knowing looks, knowing they have been right about it.

"Come out now," Dumbledore began to speak again. "Or do you want to feel the pain of the Depiction Curse," he added warningly.

To Hermione and Neville's surprise, the Bloody Baron came out with his bloody chains, red blood flowing all over him, avoiding the spell that almost hit him. It was him who gave vital information to the Deatheaters about the stones. Dumbledore wore a sad frowned on his face, clearly disappointed at one of his loyal ghost inhabitants.

The Baron floated high above the three and gritted his teeth, sensing his fate was about to be end. Even though he was bad, his sense of relativity was high and he knew if he moved an inch or escape in front of Dumbledore would be a big mistake.

"Why are you doing this, Bloody Baron?" Dumbledore asked grimly, he lost the twinkle in his eyes.

"I was told that if I ever cooperated with the Deatheaters, the Dark lord will give me back my body," he answered without a hint of regret or fear.

Dumbledore sighed. "That was an unwise decision you make, Baron. Have I not make Hogwarts your home? Haven't you been having fun here, Baron?" he asked.

The Baron finally looked regretting; his betrayal to Dumbledore has been his own doings. But he wasn't going to give up as he was the Bloody Baron of the Slytherin. "Scaring Peeves isn't supposed to be an everyday fun, Dumbledore. I can live forever and only do some nasty things to a worthless, coward and immature ghost," he said at the top most of his ghostly voice.

"You're denying the other privileges that I have been giving you, Baron," Dumbledore stated firmly and the Baron flinched. "I'm sorry to do this," Dumbledore shot a spell at the Bloody baron and the ghost froze in mid air.

The Headmaster turned to the two kids and couldn't throw out the frown on his face. Hermione knew Dumbledore was a very caring man; he even cared about his enemy. When people betray Dumbledore's trust, it was like stepping over the line of trust.

"I'm sorry for you to see this, Ms. Granger, Mr. Longbottom," he said sadly.

"Er... no sir, we're proud of this sir, urgh," Hermione elbowed Neville in the rib for saying such things. "I mean it's alright."

Hermione just gave a weak smile in understanding. Dumbledore replied back a soft smile. "We better move on now, your two friends are currently in danger," he said and the two Gryffindors gasped. Hermione was scared. All nasty thoughts of Harry were thrown out immediately out of her brain. She ran ahead of the Headmaster and Neville.

"Harry!" her mind yelled out of distress.

()(()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(()()()()()()()()()

"Two of you have done quite a great deed not just for Hogwarts but to the world yesterday," said Dumbledore proudly. He was delighted to see Harry and Rich, bruised and sore but alive and fine, lying in the Hospital Wing.

"No problem sir, if you hadn't come, half of the Deatheaters wouldn't be surrendering to just two boys," Rich joked, trying to chuckle but couldn't. Dumbledore gave a soft chuckle instead. Harry just smiled as he has achieved a great obstacle, capturing a very persistent Wormtail.

"Both of you rest well, I'll informed the teachers and the ghost community about the fate of the Bloody Baron," with that left them lying and waiting for another visitor to come.

Rich was wearing a cast on his right arm. Luckily he was left-handed so he can do magic with his left. Harry was lucky not to have any cast on him. There was an awkward silence filled the Hospital Wing after the Headmaster left. They were the only two boys in the room and not even Madam Pomfrey was there.

They laughed suddenly. All the thoughts of last night, bottled up in them were let out in a loud laugh. They laughed and laughed until Rich coughed and they stopped. Harry turned to Rich, grinning widely at their success.

"You thinking what I'm thinking," he said.

"Nope,"

"After coming out of this place, let's trash the field," he said mischievously, Rich grinned in response. It was a new game that Rich brought to Hogwarts. Their mischief thoughts were interrupted by four pair of clanking foots running to them and they could hear Pomfrey's voice yelling.

"Hmm...Let me guess, Draco, Neville, Terry and Ginny," Rich guessed, Harry grinned, knowing he was right. Draco, Neville, Terry and Ginny stopped when they reached the bed, panting for breath.

"Are you guys alright?" Draco asked tiredly.

Both crippled boys raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me see, some bruises here and there, my arm is broken and I'm missing a tooth or two, anything to add Harry," said Rich, turning his head to Harry's bed.

"Scars everywhere on my body," said Harry, grinning.

"Yeah and some bandages – we're alright," said Rich, smirking lazily. "So what happened to you Neville last night?"

Neville stood between the two beds. "Me and Hermione, followed the knight, who was the Bloody Baron, and um – we followed him till he stood back where he was suppose to stand along with the other suit on display and then Hermione told me to call Dumbledore and after that things let to one another," the pudge-face boy explained.

"Wow, you guys took the easy job," Rich joked.

"If we known you two are in danger, we should have followed you to detention," said Ginny, who looked guilty.

"And what, stuck with Snape in detention," Terry teased, earning himself a daggers of glares from Ginny. "Sorry,"

"What happened to Wormtail?" Harry asked curiously.

"He got a life term in prison," Draco stated, Harry growled in frustration.

"Not Azkaban!" he wailed.

"No, no, not Azkaban, Harry – somewhere far, far away, - I think in Mongolia," said Draco coolly.

"That's great, is he going to be tortured," Harry chimed.

"Cross your finger if you want to hope," said Draco, sneering at the thought of torturing.

Three days later, Harry and Rich got out of the Hospital Wing and resumed their everyday life. They still needed to find the great animals. Harry suggested that they find the lion and the badger. They declared that the eagle was dead.

Day in and day out, Terry, Draco and Ginny sought threw books in the library, looking for secret passages and tunnels that lead through the underground. They eventually gave up and decided that there was not such place as an underground place.

Harry wasn't having a great time though. He reluctantly got the job of distracting Hermione and Ron. The two have been found snooping and following them around sneakily whenever something suspicious happened with Harry. One time, Harry played a practical joke on them. He pretended to be doing something secretly in front of them.

Even Rich and others seemed suspicious of his act but they shrugged him off. Harry walked along the corridors making sure his two former bestfriends were tailing him. After that, he made them try to catch up with him by pretending to try to lose them. Harry went up and down the floors of Hogwarts, the stairs and moving around in circles, making sure they were frustrated by his antics. If they still didn't quit, Harry did something nasty. He went in the Boys' loo and pretended to meet up someone. He hoped Hermione and Ron fell for it.

Luckily it did. Hermione and Ron thought Harry was trying to lose them by entering the loo in order to meet someone. Being the most curious witch in Hogwarts, Hermione wanted to go into the loo, she didn't care it was the boys room. Ron halted in protest but she didn't care. She entered the place only to find several boys shrieked to hide their You-know-what.

"Oh! Sorry," she said, her face was flushed with embarrassment. Finally she realized, Harry had tricked her out of fun.

"Ooooo, looky, looky, Head Girl barged in the little boys room to take a peek at our ah hem," Harry teased, he was behind her and Ron. The bushy haired girl tried to give a murderous glare but couldn't as she was utterly embarrassed so she ran out of the loo, leaving Ron and Harry.

"So what's new, Ronnie?" Harry mocked, to get Ron's attention away from Hermione.

"Don't call me that!" Ron snarled, glaring at his former bestfriend.

"Too slow on the front hey Ron," Harry sneered, something he learned from a certain someone.

"I'm not slow," Ron exclaimed.

"Oh right! You're not, you're just a perverted horny arse boy," Harry teased again, faking a pitied face.

"What do you mean?" Ron was scared now.

"Oh! You didn't know-" he made a fake confused face, "-You didn't know about yourself getting on it with some other girls – other than Hermione – mainly, Pansy, Lavender, Patils, Mandy, and oh don't forget Susan and Hannah and oh Luna, and even Millicent, oh my your such a horny arse."

"You shut up!" Ron growled furiously.

"I wonder why Hermione is such an idiot, hooking up with an even greater idiot who is a pervert horny arse boy," Harry mocked Ron's relationship with Hermione.

"Shut up! Shut up!"

"Oh right! You couldn't give Hermione pleasures, so you try other girls to satisfy you and if I'm correct, both of you never did it right because she was too stupidly busy chasing me and wanted to be bestfriends again," he said, laughing derisively at Ron who immediately ran away, closing his ears. Harry smirked, satisfied that he played both idiots.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Thinking of his success, he suddenly got an idea on how to enter the undergrounds. He went back to the common room to tell his friends. He told them about his sick trick, earning himself some pat on the back. He then told his plans of getting into the underground via the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They decided to do this at night.

During dinner, all five boys ate up fast and ran back to their respective dormitories to get ready for their adventure. They met up at the girls' toilet and descended the secret entrance that led to the Chamber of Secrets. Instead of moving towards the direction of the main chamber, they went through the smelly sewers and braced themselves for the worst.

As they went on, the damp, creepy, cramp pipes, the way kept getting darker and darker and freaked Neville. The smell disappeared when the pipes led to a very dark area. None of them can see each other.

"Can anyone see anything?" Harry asked.

"No," the other four boys spoke in unison.

"Let just use our damn wand!" Draco hissed but Harry objected.

"We don't know if there's anything dangerous down here, we don't want to attract any dangerous menagerie," he said. As they walked, they heard someone fell down.

"OW!"

"Who said that?" Terry asked, moving his head left to right, instantly realized it was stupid to do such thing in the dark.

"Me-" Neville spoke with a hurt voice, "-I slipped, I think I broke my ankle, oh sorry I don't."

Rich shushed them all. "Do you guys feel that?" he whispered.

"No," said Harry. "What do you feel?"

"The wind, it's strong," he said quickly.

The boys felt it too; the wind blew hot current, passing their necks. They feel tingling in their body and shuddered. The wind blew as thought the source was just behind them.

"Want to use our wands right now?" Harry asked, worried of whatever was behind them.

"I don't think so," Draco squirmed, just now he was anxious to use his wand and right now, he was scared.

"We have too," Rich said firmly. "It's the only way to find out."

"Alright but we ran after that – after what we find it may look like," said Terry worriedly.

"On three, one-two-three, Lumos," Harry cast the Lumos spell along with the others. There he stood face to face with two caves. Both caves blew strong currents from them. Strangely as if may seen, the caves looked lively, as though it moved up and down. That was what Harry saw but his friends saw other things.

"Um... Harry," Terry called him, his voice was quavering.

"Yeah," he responded.

"It is just me or is this cave moving?" the Ravenclaw asked.

"I don't think this cave moving, Terry – Draco, Rich, Neville, what do you guys see?" he moved his wands to where there was other lights that was cast by his friends.

"I don't know," Neville murmured softly, but his voice could be heard loud in the cave.

"I see some hair," said Draco quickly.

Hearing Draco and Neville's voices seemed to irk Harry a bit. "Rich, are you there?" he searched for another light. Rich didn't respond and his wand wasn't any where to be seen. "Rich!" he yelled, there was still no response.

"Hey!" Terry yelped, feeling being dragged by someone. Harry heard him and went to him only to meet Rich running to him whilst pulling Terry with him. "Hey what's going on, Rich? You don't have to tug me," Terry said crossly.

"Just move!" Rich hissed, moving his feet quickly, making the Ravenclaw following him without a protest.

"What's going on, Rich?" Harry asked, confused by his friend's act.

"Raised your wand higher," the Weasley cousin told him as Terry pulled his hand off Rich. Draco and Neville came up to them.

"Hey what's wrong?" Neville asked. He was sweating profusely.

"Just raised your wand," said Rich sternly, whose wand didn't have the Light Spell cast on it.

All four boys followed his order and raised their wand higher than their heads. They were surprised when they saw something or rather someone they have been looking for. In front of them lay, an animal, as immense as the Basilisk, golden fur around its body and auburn shaggy mane around its face, paws as big as Hagrid, face that exactly describe the king of the jungle. It was sleeping till when the boys raised their wands, the light was so bright that it was awaken. It growled nastily and stood up. It blinked several times and looked down on the ones that disturbed his sleep.

Harry gulped all the saliva for his mouth went down and his mouth was dry. There he stood face to face, along with his friends, the Golden Lion of Gryffindor.

"Oh boy," Neville muttered.



"I wonder where they are." Hermione asked Ron who was beside her. Both of them were doing their essays on the Liberty Potion. Hermione was the one doing it as Ron just copied her work boldly.

"Who?" said Ron, not bothering to look at Hermione's face. He was writing down what she was writing.

"Harry and Rich," she said nonchalantly, with that Ron frowned at her.

"Leave them alone already, we have enough taunt and joke from them in one day," he said curtly.

Hermione frowned back at him, sensing his disgruntled at the name of his cousin and Harry. "What is wrong with you? I only asked where those two were," she said, curious of her boyfriend's irritated behaviour.

Ron kept himself after that, but muttered some few curses under his breath. Hermione heard one of those curses saying 'Git of a cousin, stupid dog of his.' Hearing that, reminded Hermione the night she drugged Harry but failed to knocked off Rich. Ron killed Rich's beloved dog and never felt sorry for it.

That explained why Ron was a bit irritated towards some pets and couldn't care less how to maintain a pet. Hermione thought why her cat has a bit of dislike towards Ron, now she finally had the answer.

She glanced around the common room, in search of Harry and Rich. Even Neville wasn't there. Her eyes soon fell on a red headed female, who was sitting idly by the fireplace. She noticed that Ginny was a bit nervous since dinner was over. There was something wrong about tonight. It was her instinct that told her the facts. Harry was gone, Rich was gone, Neville wasn't by Ginny side and Ginny was practically edgy.

So, she left Ron's side and went to Ginny. Ron was startled by her moving away from him or that what he was thinking. His eyes followed her as she sat beside Ginny. Stupidly, he was even jealous that Hermione spent a lot of time with Ginny. One thing that Ron didn't know that everyone else knew, except the teachers of course, that Ginny was in a threesome relationship. He only knew that Ginny was with Neville and he also didn't like Neville for his late attention that the once shy boy has gotten himself from the other students. Hermione scolded him fro hating Neville.

"Hi Ginny," said Hermione, wearing a smile to greet her friend.

Ginny was stirred by Hermione's presence. "Oh! Hey," she stammered, Hermione confirmed that there was something suspicious going on and Ginny was hiding it.

"Where's Neville? I haven't seen him, he asked me to help him with his Potion's essay," said Hermione coolly. Ginny frowned. Clearly, Hermione wanted to get answers about where Harry was. 'Can't the girl stop bothering him for a second?' she thought wryly. Draco was the only one who helped Neville with Potions not Hermione.

"He's with Draco and Terry doing their work, you know," she replied nonchalantly.

Hermione knew those three were with Harry and Rich. "So what you're doing?" Hermione asked, looking at the beads and flowers.

"Doing some accessories, want one?" she offered a finished one. It was a bracelet. Hermione was astonished how well made the bracelet was. It looked like real jewellery with diamonds shining lightly.

"How?!" she asked.

Ginny grinned; she managed to distract Hermione's thought. "I used a Silver Diamond Charm, like it," she informed the older girl.

"Silver Charm Diamond Charm," mumbled Hermione, she looked disbelievingly at Ginny who smirked triumphantly. "That spell is like our year, it's not easy for sixth year to perform it," she said, feeling impressed by the youngest Weasley sibling.

"I know," said Ginny.

The two girls talked back and forth, about girl stuff which Hermione usually not interested, until something that was not commonly happen in Hogwarts happened.

()()()()()()()()()(()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

'ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR'

Everyone in the common room jumped, surprised by the loud growling roar of an animal.

"What was that?" Seamus asked, all Gryffindors and some Hufflepuffs glance nervously around them.

"I think it was from the forest," Hermione informed them and stood up, walking to the window. Ginny and everyone else followed her. Ron, who was slow to act, stood up after everyone went to the window. "There's nothing outside," said Hermione, looking around the forest and Hagrid's hut. She saw Hagrid, already out of his hut with Fang. The half giant got his crossbow out and pointed at the forest. He was yelling at something but the Gryffindors couldn't hear him well enough, though the yelling was audible. Suddenly there was a slight tremor around Hogwarts.

"What's happening?" one of the Gryffindors said, scared slightly.

The tremor became fierce. Dust trembled around every surface, everything moved quaveringly because of the tremor. Hermione poked her head out of the window. She called out her friend. "Hagrid! What's going on?" she yelled loudly, hoping the half-giant heard her from the tower. Fortunately, Hagrid heard her and turned his head up to the tower. He saw Hermione at the window.

"Get yer head back in there Ermione," Hagrid yelled anxiously back and Hermione was slightly scared by his voice and went back inside.

"Look!" Ginny pointed her index at an opening on the ground. It was a hole, wanting to burst something out of the ground. Then it came.

A lion as huge as the greenhouse, burst out of the grounds, leaping into the air. The Gryffindors were awed as they looked at the giant animal, passing them. It stopped where the moon shone faintly. Everyone can see the golden fur shone all over Hogwarts as though the sun was setting.

The lion dropped to the ground and wiggled its body, getting dust off its beautiful fur.

"Wow! That's a very huge lion," said a very awed first year. Everyone was quite silent. The lion continued shaking its body as though it wanted to drop something annoying off its back. Hermione noticed this behaviour.

"Look, there's something on its head," said a third year. Everyone noticed someone holding onto the lion's mane by the cheek. Being curious, Hermione looked around the common room and how convenient that an omnicular was there by the table. She summoned it with her wand and she used it to take a look closely at the person.

"It's Rich!" she said anxiously, Ginny immediately went frantic, and Ron was incredulous.

"No way, why would Rich waste his time on top of the lion," he said, making an irritable face. Hermione glared at him.

"Why don't you take a look yourself?" she shoved the omnicular to him. Ron grumbled and used the omnicular.

"Bloody hell, he's going to die," he said sarcastically, faking concern. Ginny and Hermione glared dangerously at him but shrugged it off as they saw the lion leapt again. Ron couldn't help but sneered maniacally at his cousin. 'That prat deserves some lessons,' he thought.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

"Please stop! Whoa!" Rich yelled desperately to stop the lion from leaping and landing down. "I know you can hear me Mr. Lion – please stop!"

"How I am to know that you wanted my help, you could be an evil man," the lion said. Rich could hear it but to the others, it was just a simple roar.

"I'm not an evil man," he exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Than proof it," the lion stated and took another leap into the air. Rich held the hair form the mane for his dear life. He was screaming and yelling. It was like a rollercoaster ride. How can Rich convinced this stubborn lion that he was not an evil man.

Dumbledore!

The old wizard should have come any minute now but how long, it took fifteen minutes to get to Hagrid's Hut. Rich have to brace for the moment, hold on to the lion as long as he can. The problem part was when the lion landed not so soft to the ground. It loosened his grip on the mane. He could fell to the ground and die or climbed to the top of the head where he could secure a better grip.

Harry and the others emerged from the big hole. They used the Effervescence Charm to carry all his friends to the top. They were surprised where they were now. Harry immediately looked around for Rich and the giant animal.

"Hey looked at the shadow, it's getting bigger," said Neville, pointing at the ground where a small shadow getting bigger and bigger.

"That's a weird shadow," said Draco.

"YOU GUYS GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a familiar hoarse voice was heard. Harry spun around and saw Hagrid with his crossbow and Fang.

All four guys looked up and saw the lion, which was about to land on them if they don't move. With quick reflexes, Harry pulled Neville with him to the left while Draco tugged Terry to the opposite side. The lion landed with a loud thump, Hogwarts could be destroyed by just a quake. The four boys were safe.

"You are a tough human," the lion spoke defiantly.

"You're the one to say, my backs hurt from all this landing," said Rich lazily, rubbing his sore back. The lion roared loudly, everyone within few feet of the lion closed their ears. Hagrid was wearing his ear muffs and gawked at the size of the lion. Fang was kneeling and closing his ears and eyes. Rich only heard the lion laughing vulgarly. 'Is this the so called Lion Heart bravery, seems this cat is drunk to me,' thought Rich exasperatedly.

"You got me there, human. Never I heard someone this stubborn since Gryffindor himself," said the lion delightedly, Rich was completely taken by the lion's sentence. He was flabbergasted.

A/N: The next chapter will have Hermione pleading to be with her again, this should be good. MWA HA HA.