They were jammed in a tiny, dusty, cobwebbed broom cupboard. Rodolphus gripped Severus' shoulder tightly.
In the narrow shaft of light spilling stab through the keyhole, Severus discerned strange shapes on the door. He reached out and discovered that the broom closet was equipped with no less than five deadbolts. Quickly he locked them all; then each boy held his breath as Filch's footfalls pounded outside.
"Where do you think they went?" Filch asked his cat. "Hey—Mrs. Norris! Mrs. Norris, stop that!"
Rodolphus' fingers dug painfully into Severus' shoulder as kitten-claws scratched at the door. Severus was miserably aware that he was unarmed.
"No, Mrs. Norris! Bad girl!"
Filch came up to the door and scooped up his kitten. Severus felt weak. A mere inch of wood stood between him and death by evisceration.
"Bad kitty, look what you've done!" scolded Filch. "You've scratched up the polish!"
Mrs. Norris mewled angrily. "Mrs. Norris, I am hunting down a group of fighting vandals, I don't have time to stop and get your cat food out of there again! You'll just have to wait until we catch and punish these delinquents." Severus and Rodolphus exchanged looks of puzzlement. This was a broom cupboard, not a cat food pantry.
"I'll have to come back later to polish up the door again," Filch said mournfully. "Let's go, I think they went this way."
Severus waited a full minute after the sounds of Filch's heavy footsteps and his kitten's famished yowls had faded away before unlocking the door and falling onto the floor in the corridor. "On l'a échappé belle," Rodolphus sighed in relief.
"That was a close shave," Severus agreed, massaging his shoulder. "Filch must be losing his marbles—cat food in a broom cupboard, honestly. Let's go to the infirmary, I think you broke my collarbone."
"No, let's go to the kitchens. I want to get cleaned up, and I could do with a spot of tea." Rodolphus touched a darkening bruise on his cheek and winced.
They staggered downstairs to the portrait of the bowl of fruit and tickled the green pear to enter the kitchens. The house-elves squealed, at first in shock to their injuries, then in excitement when they recognized Severus. They installed the two Slytherins on a hearth-rug at the fireside and set about feeding them and cleaning the blood from their wounds.
"Two lumps," Severus said to the house-elf who was putting sugar in his tea. "Ouch!" He flinched as another elf, who was working on washing his face with a damp tea-towel, touched upon a sore spot.
"Scrimper is sorry, sir," apologized the elf. "Was you badly hurt in the fight?"
"No," Severus sighed, "it's just a little blood." He gave a feeble laugh. "Those Gryffindors can't hit half as hard as my father."
"Is it the Gryffindors who is troubling you?" enquired Scrimper, and turning to the elf who was tending to Rodolphus' injuries, he said, "They was here just a moment ago, wasn't they, Biddy?"
Rodolphus bolted upright, nearly impaling his eye on Biddy's long nose. "They was here? I mean, they were here?"
"They is leaving long before you comes," Biddy said soothingly, holding out a plate of chocolate éclairs. "The masters Lupin and Pettigrew, they is only asking for a nibble before dinner," she added, pointing to the other house-elves, who were hurrying about making dinner. "You is hungry for stoat pie, sir?" she asked Severus hopefully. "We is baking a big plate, sir, just for the Slytherin table."
"Yeah, I'll eat it all at dinner," Severus agreed wearily, and Scrimper and Biddy brightened.
"Hurry up, still lots to do!" one of the house-elves called above the general din. "Still dinner to cook, robes to be washed and pressed, fires to be stoked in the common rooms!"
"Where is you both getting so dusty?" Biddy enquired, peeling a cobweb out of Rodolphus' hair.
"Broom cupboard on the seventh floor, the one with all the deadbolts," Severus said. "We were running from Filch."
"There isn't any broom cupboard on the seventh floor," Scrimper objected. "Perhaps you is meaning the Room of Requirement? It changes to fit your needs. If you was running from Mr. Filch, you would be seeking a hiding place, yes? Then it makes itself a broom cupboard that locks from the inside."
"And if you were a hungry kitten," Severus said slowly, "then it would be full of cat food! Perhaps Filch isn't so mad after all."
"Say, you must know everything about the castle," Rodolphus said to the house-elves.
They nodded eagerly. "We is knowing all Hogwarts' secrets!" Scrimper boasted.
"So you'd know whether there were any secret passageways to, say, Hogsmeade?" Rodolphus pressed.
"Oh, plenty, sir," Scrimper beamed, "there is one behind Gregory the Smarmy, and one behind the mirror on the fourth floor-"
"Eh?" Severus said, sitting up with interest.
"Scrimper!" Biddy hissed urgently, looking fearful. "I is thinking you oughts not to be talking about this! What if they is leaving the castle and getting into more troubles?"
"Shut up!" Rodolphus said to her, but Scrimper looked ashamed.
"I is sorry, sir," he squeaked contritely, "but Biddy is right, I oughts to keep quiet."
"It's all right, Scrimper, we oughts- er, we really should be going now," Severus said, with a pacifying glance at Rodolphus.
They finished their tea and departed, trying to look nonchalant. They were both brimming with anticipation, though, and the moment the portrait closed behind them they said at once, "Mirror on the fourth floor!"
"At least we got something out of those pathetic creatures," Rodolphus said happily.
They heard cheering and stamping feet above their heads in the Entrance Hall; and over the commotion they discerned Bagman's voice, still yelling the final score as the students all tramped back into the school. "Slytherin 210, Gryffindor 80!"
"You lucky sod!" Severus laughed as he dug out two gold Galleons and handed them to Rodolphus.
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Two nights later, when they had recovered from their injuries, Rodolphus convinced Severus, against his better judgment, to sneak out of the common room again. By some miracle they did not meet Filch once as they slipped through the empty corridors to the fourth floor, where they soon found the mirror Scrimper had mentioned. It was as wide as two men standing shoulder to shoulder, and almost high enough to touch the ceiling.
However, they had neglected to question Scrimper as to how to open the mirror, and their vigorous efforts to pry the frame from the wall were in vain.
Rodolphus slumped against the mirror in despair. "It's hopeless! We'll have to go back to the kitchens and ask them again."
"Wait!" Severus hissed. Although Rodolphus was not moving, he had just seen the reflection straighten up and turn to look directly at Severus. The reflection mouthed a word and smiled.
"Referio?" Severus repeated. To his shock his own reflection began to fade, and before he knew what was happening he found himself alone and plunged into blackness.
"Sev?" he heard Rodolphus cry frantically, his voice muffled. "Sev?"
"Shh!" Severus hissed. "I think the mirror reflected me behind it."
"That doesn't make sense," Rodolphus said plaintively.
"It's magic, it doesn't have to," Severus answered, fumbling in the darkness. The walls were rough, except one smooth one, which he guessed must be the back of the mirror. "Just say the word your reflection mouths at you."
"Referio," Rodolphus said tentatively, and in a moment Severus felt him materialize at his side in the dark.
"Weird," Rodolphus said. "Lumos."
They advanced behind the faint beam of wand-light. This passage had a narrow rickety staircase that spiralled straight down into the dark.
"Merde, it's filthy in here!" hissed Rodolphus, brushing cobwebs out of his face.
"No, that's a good sign, it means no one's been here in a long time," Severus whispered.
They descended slowly, carefully, at last reaching an earthen tunnel, wide and so low that they had to stoop. Severus was deathly afraid that they would meet Filch and Mrs. Norris in this passage. The remnants of his wand had been binned, so he wasn't armed, and he doubted he could rely on Rodolphus to save them. But to his relief the only sounds in the length of the passage were his and Rodolphus' shuffling and their hesitant breath.
At last the tunnel finished, at a blank stone wall with a rusty iron ladder. "You first," Rodolphus said, holding aloft his lit wand and peering up along the ladder.
Severus climbed the ladder, which creaked alarmingly but clung to its moorings. He squeezed through a narrow cylindrical shaft that ended very abruptly with a hard cover that bumped his head.
"Ow," he said in annoyance. Then it occurred to him to shift the cover, and he found himself sticking out of a rubbish bin by the side of the post office.
"We did it, Rodolphus!" he whispered down the shaft as he clambered out of the bin. "We made it to Hogsmeade!"
Though the hour was late there were still a few townspeople milling about, coming out of the Three Broomsticks down the road and the various other pubs and tea shops along the main street. Severus and Rodolphus could barely contain their excitement, but they had to be careful to stay in the shadows and make no noise.
The shops were all closed and dark; still, it gave Severus a thrill to be able to peer into the windows and see things he knew he wasn't officially meant to be seeing for another three years. Zonko's Joke Shop had a number of enthralling and undoubtedly very amusing gadgets on display. Gladrags' Wizardwear had brightly patterned socks that were doing a merry jig all by themselves in the window. Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop was showcasing a new line of sleek, beautiful quills, and owls periodically burst in and out of the windows of the post office with messages (and rats). Even in the middle of the night Hogsmeade was a fascinating place for two delinquent first years.
They peeked in everyone's windows and stared at drunkards in the street. At last Severus happened to notice where most of these inebriates were coming from: a small, dismal inn off on a side street, with a sign depicting a wild boar's severed head, staining crimson the white shroud around it.
"The Hog's Head," he whispered to Rodolphus.
They crept up to the pub and tried to peer inside, but the windows were oily and caked with many decades of grime. At that point Rodolphus checked his wristwatch and realized they had been out of bed for nearly two hours, and they had to run back to the secret passageway that took them back to the castle. But the constant yawns and dark-circled eyes that plagued them the next day were well worth the thrill of having discovered a way into Hogsmeade.