The six of them walked in silence down the corridor, all feeling a little anxious and knowing they really shouldn't be there. They all jumped in fright when the torch brackets littering the wall all burst into flames, bathing the corridor in light. The silence of the corridor allowed the tap of Mrs Norris' paws to echo around them as she appeared behind them in the deserted corridor.
"It's Filch's cat!" Ron screeched like a banshee.
"Run!" Emily yelled.
The six of them raced down the corridor, hoping beyond all hope they could evade Mrs Norris. Emily, leading them further down the corridor, crashed into the large oak door that lay ahead of them. She jiggled the handle furiously but it didn't budge.
"We're absolutely for it!" Bella wailed.
"Oh move over!" Hermione barked. She pushed her way to the front and brandished her wand. 'Alohomora' she whispered, tapping the door handle with the tip of her wand. The door opened with a soft click and she pushed it open, the five of them bundling in after her.
"Alohomora?" Ron asked.
"Standard book of spells chapter 7." Hermione huffed.
"Shush." Freya swiped her hand behind her, attempting to silence them as she leaned her ear against the thick wood, listening for any hint of Filch or Mrs Norris.
Bella turned away from the door and paused. On the floor in front of her feet was a large canine head with teeth as big as her forearm and a large pile of drool dripping from its open jaws. She turned her head slowly from left to right and found not one but two more identical heads attached to an enormous frame. She grabbed a-hold of Ron's cloak behind her and began to shake his arm, trying to gain his attention.
"What?" He hissed, turning around to glare at Bella. She pointed in front of her and his jaw dropped open, the fer evident in his eyes.
"There's no one there." Freya said quietly, pulling her ear away from the door.
"Filch probably thinks this door's locked." Harry replied.
"It was locked." Emily corrected.
"And for good reason." Ron yelped.
Ron's yelp of terror caused the canine heads to stir. The head laying directly at Bella's feet blinked a few times, rising slowly from the ground, it's hot breath washing over Bella in waves. It growled lowly when it spotted Bella and let out a thunderous roar. The six of them screamed loudly, rushing quickly from the room. The closest head went for Bella and missed her by inches, just as they made it out into the corridor. Their weight just managed to seal the three-headed dog in the large room and without a word the six of them raced back to the common room as fast as their legs would carry them.
"What do they think they're doing keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron fumed as soon as the portrait closed behind them. Bella collapsed onto the floor, taking deep heaving breaths as Freya rubbed her back.
"Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Hermione asked in frustration.
"See what it was standing on?" Ron seethed. "I'm terribly sorry Hermione, but I was more interested in it's three heads!"
"Will you two stop fighting?" Emily hissed.
"It's guarding something Ronald, I'd guess something important." Hermione replied.
"Guarding something?" Harry asked.
"Yes Harry, guarding something. Now if you all don't mind, I'm off to bed before one of you has a bright idea that gets us killed or worse, expelled." Hermione huffed. She turned so fast that her hair whipped Ron in the face and he spluttered, mortified, as Hermione stomped off to the girls dorm.
"She needs to sort out her priorities!" Ron huffed with a roll of his eyes.
"She's right you know." Emily said. "It's not there by accident."
"Not you as well." Ron groaned.
"I'm just saying." Emily said as she held her hands up in mock surrender.
"I think the girls might be right Ron." Harry said.
"I suppose." He grumbled.
Bella was still huffing and puffing as she rose, very ungracefully, to her feet, using the furniture around her for assistance.
"Goodnight." She breathed, patting Ron and Harry on the shoulder lightly and following Freya and Emily up to their dorm. Hermione was grumbling under her breath, getting ready for bed.
"Pay him no mind, he can be a right git sometimes." Bella whispered to Hermione in the darkness.
Bella used whatever energy she had left to lazily pull on her pajamas and climb under the covers, the exhaustion of the night pulling her into dreamland before her head hit the pillow.
