(Here's the next chapter. It may be a little short, but I hope you like it. :) I own nothing but Lucy.)

...

It was midnight when they decided to sneak out from their rooms and meet in the Common room before heading for the third floor.

Feeling apprehensive, Lucy exchanged a nervous look with Hermione before shutting the door to their room.

Hurry. Harry urged her. Snape will be up to third floor by now! Lucy rolled her eyes.

"What are you rolling your eyes at?" Hermione asked in a loud whisper as the two girls started to make their way down the stairs.

"Nothing." Lucy shook her head.

"Finally!" Ron almost forgot to whisper as the girls stepped off to the main floor. "Now what?" Harry nodded towards the door.

"We leave that way." He looked to the girls.

Hermione nodded and the foursome started to make their way across the common room taking care not to speak or make a single noise as they walked.

"Eep!" Ron squeaked suddenly and Harry clapped a hand over his mouth just as something sleek and white jumped off the couch at him.

Lucy let out a breath of relief. "Thenie, don't scare us like that." She chided her pet softly.

When Athene hissed in response arching up as if readying for a pounce, the four first years shrank instinctively away from her.

"Athene?...What's wrong?"

Lucy asked, worried when a small brown toad suddenly hopped up onto an armchair staring at the foursome with its large beady eyes.

"It's Neville's toad!" Hermione realized. Ron glared at the small amphibian. "Trevor! Shh! Go away!...Shoo! You shouldn't be here!" He tried to scare him off.

Athene pounced on the toad.

"Ah!" A small figure clad in blue flannel pajamas suddenly fell off the armchair as Lucy hurried to retrieve her cat.

"Neville!" Harry exclaimed upon recognizing the boy on the floor. Neville let out a groan. "Ah...yeah. What the bloody hell was-."

"Athene was trying to go for your toad. I'm sorry Neville." Lucy hastily apologized, hodling on to her kitten while it struggled. Neville shook his head. "It's okay. It was dark anyhow." He shook out his muscles.

Ron sighed. "Well that's that. See you around, Neville." The group started to head for the door.

"Wait!" Neville called after them. "You can't go! Students aren't allowed after-."

"We know Neville. You're just going to have to trust us on this oka-." Hermione tried to explain, but Neville cut her off.

"No! I won't let you leave! You'll just get Gryffindor into trouble again!" He protested. Lucy gave him a pleading look.

"Neville please?" She tried, but it was no use.

"No! I won't let you! I won't!...I'll uh fight you!" He put up his fists. Harry rolled his eyes. "Now see here Neville-."

"Neville, I'm really really sorry about this. Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione pulled out her wand. Lucy gasped as Neville dropped to the ground his body trapped in a magical paralysis.

Ron let out a gulp. "You know you're a little scary sometimes." He nodded at Neville's motionless form. "Brilliant of course but...scary." He shivered.

Hermione put her wand away. "It's for his own good. He'll understand later. Hopefully." She walked past the boy and his toad.

Harry followed after her. "Sorry Neville." He whispered and Ron followed suit. "Sorry mate."

"You three go on ahead." Lucy made no move to follow the rest of her friends. "I'm going to put Athene upstairs so she can't get into anymore trouble while we're away."

Harry nodded his head. "We'll wait for you outside the door." He pulled the invisibility cloak from under his robe.

...

"Ow! You stood on my foot!" Hermoine complained as the four first years struggled to move inconspicuously underneath the large invisibility cloak.

Lucy turned and put a finger to her lips. "Shh!"

"Here we are!" Harry whispered as he stopped in front of a door. The same door they had gone into months ago when they'd gotten lost getting back to the Gryffindor Tower.

Lucy pulled at the cloak as Harry grabbed his wand out of his pocket. "Alohamora!" He whispered. The door quietly unlocked itself.

"Ah!" Lucy gasped and jumped backwards as they entered the room, dropping the cloak only to come face to face with the guardian beast.

"Hang on!" Harry quickly held up a hand. "He's sleeping." He stepped carefully around the dog's large front paws and wrinkled his nose at the strong pungent odor that came off of Fluffy's breath.

"Snape must already be here then." Ron guessed as he walked around the other side of the room. "He must have put the dog to sleep with that harp." He pointed to a small golden lyre that played a soft soothing tune all on its own in the corner of the chamber.

"Well spotted." Hermione spoke softly as she stepped further into the tiny chamber. Lucy quietly followed.

"Ugh...it's got horrible breath!" Ron grimaced as he wandered too close to one of the dog's heads.

Lucy sighed and bent to examined the old floor, keeping her eyes away from the dog as Hermione stepped around her. "Hey!...Look guys, it's the trap door! The one Hermione told us about. I bet that's where the stone is."

The others gathered around her as Lucy carefully brushed some dust from a section of the wood. Hermione knelt down next to her.

"Good work Lucy. Let's try to move it's paw." Hermione reached to grab a side of Fluffy's large right paw. Lucy swatted her hand away.

"Hermione wait! What if the dog wakes up?" She worried, looking to Harry for help.

"It shouldn't while that harp is still playing." Hermione furrowed her brows. "Why are you so scared anyway?" Lucy hung her head.

"Why? It's twenty foot dog! What do you mean why?" Ron almost forgot to whisper. Hermione shot him a look.

"It's because of Ripper." Harry admitted albeit a bit reluctantly since he knew of his sister's aversion to this memory.

"Ripper?" Hermione inquired.

"Our Aunt's dog. Every year either on Christmas or Dudley's Birthday she'd come over and bring one of her nasty dogs, usually Ripper and..well..." Lucy slowly shoved up the sleeve of her robe and sweater revealing three bite marks just above her wrist.

Ron gaped at them.

"That's awful!" Hermione was horrified. Lucy pushed her sleeve back down. "Yes well, let's just hurry up and move the dog's paw before it wakes again and chases us out of the room." She knelt and with some distaste grabbed the dog by one of its large front toes.

Hermione nodded and reached to grab the other side of the dog's paw listening to the soft sound of the harp as Harry and Ron positioned themselves around her.

"Okay on the count of three, we move the paw to the left." Harry directed and everyone nodded in compliance.

"One..." Harry began and looked to his sister. "Two.." She followed in time.

"Three!" The four first years pushed against the dog's paw, slowly it moved till it had inched all the way off of the wooden door which opened quite easily at a pull.

Harry peered into the darkness below before turning back to his sister and his friends. "All right, whatever we find down there stick together. I'll go down first so don't follow till I give you the sign."

Ron and Hermione nodded simultaneously. "I'll go next." Lucy offered, casting one last nervous glance at the sleeping cerberus.

Harry nodded back at her. "Right then." He started to prepare himself to leap down the hatch when Lucy suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Uh Harry? Do you hear that?" She looked around nervously.

Harry looked up from the hole. "Hear what?"

"Exactly!" Lucy bumped into Hermione. "The harp...it's stopped playing!" The four first years turned their heads slowly in the general direction of the magical harp when a spot of drool dropped on the shoulder of Ron's robes.

"Ugh!" Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust at the blob.

"Yuck!" Ron poked the stain gingerly with the tip of his wand until another drop fell on top of it. Lucy took a slow hesitant peek up at the dog.

"Ahhh!" She screamed and jumped into the hatch. "Lucy!" Harry jumped down after her and the others followed suit until they landed in what appeared to be a pile of long twisting dried up vines.

"Whoa!" Ron looked about himself as Harry tried to climb over the vines to where Lucy was. "Lucky this plant thing was here, huh?" He started to smile when one of the vines sprang up and tied him down by his arms.

"Ahh!" He screamed as more of the vines sprang up, tying the four first years fast to the spot. Lucy gasped when one of the vines wrapped around her neck.

"Don't move!" Hermione hissed over the commotion Ron was causing. "This is Devil's Snare. If you don't relax it will only kill you faster."

"Kill us Faster?! Oh NOW I can relax!" Ron continued to struggle against his bonds. Hermione merely rolled her eyes before the plants pulled her through the floor.

"Hermione!" Ron and Harry screamed as Lucy made a pitiful attempt to grab her by the arm.

"Just relax!" Hermione's voice floated up from below them.

"Hermione?" Lucy pulled at the vine tightening around her neck. "I said relax!" Hermione repeated sounding a bit impatient. "Stop struggling and you'll see me at the bottom."

Lucy slowly let go of the vines. "Lu, what are you doing?" Ron exclaimed, losing his breath when the vines tightened their hold around his vocal chords.

"Lu!" Harry made a grab for his sister, but she disappeared just as Hermione did right through the middle of the plants.

"Ah!" Lucy gasped when the vines dropped her. She landed bottom first on a hard stone cement floor. "You made it!" Hermione smiled and offered her a hand up as Lucy sat smarting from her fall.

"Ah..yeah. Where are we now?" She asked, looking about herself as Hermione pulled her back to her feet.

"Somewhere before the next challenge." She looked up to where Harry and Ron were still struggling on the Devil's Snare.

"Of course! I read about that in the book! The stone is being guarded by enchantments cast by every teacher in the school, right? Fluffy was Hagrid's and the Devil's Snare is-."

"Heeeeelp!" Ron's cry cut into Lucy's thoughts. Hermione uttered a groan. "He's not relaxing, is he?"

Lucy followed her gaze. "Obviously not." She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Harry!"

"Lu?" Harry turned his head wildly about her. "Where are you?"

"I'm down here with Hermione! Tell Ron to relax! It's the only way to pass the challenge!"

"The challenge?" Harry gasped. Lucy rolled her eyes. "Just do as I say!" She raised her voice. Hermione stamped her foot.

"Now!"

A moment later, Harry fell through the floor landing with a thump as Lucy did earlier.

"Ah! Nice of you to join us." Lucy remarked sarcastically as Harry picked himself up from the ground.

"Yeah thanks." He muttered wiping under his nose before looking around about himself.

"Harry, we have to do something." Hermione pointed up to where Ron was still screaming, struggling against the Devil's Snare.

Harry followed her gaze. "Yeah, the snare's going to kill him at this rate." He shook his head. Lucy bit her lip.

"There's got to be some spell we can use to make the Devil's Snare retract." She started to pace the small area under the Devil's Snare.

Hermione stopped her. "Herbology for Beginners! Chapter Seven! Devil's Snare is deadly fun-"

"But it will sulk in the sun!" Lucy picked up her sentence and finished it for her. "That's it! We have to use a sunlight spell!" She pulled out her wand.

Hermione drew hers at the same time. "Together then?" She asked without looking over at her friend. Lucy nodded her head. "One..."

"Two..."

"Three! Lumos Solem!" The two girls chanted, pointing their wands straight up at the ceiling. A terrible shrieking filled everyone's ears as a blinding light engulfed the room.

A second later, Ron fell through the vines landing back first flat on the floor. Harry rushed to help him up. "Ron! Are you okay?" He asked.

Ron nodded his head. "Yeah...Whew!" He looked up at the ceiling. "Lucky we didn't panic huh?" He looked around at his friends.

Lucy and Hermione exchanged glances.

"Lucky the girls pay attention in Herbology." Harry corrected, patting his best friend on the back. "Come on, let's go." The four first years headed out through the corridor.