A new year. A fresh clean start. And I'm spending it doing the same thing I've been doing for the last few months. I guess it's true that the more things change the more they stay the same. I've been working around some ideas, both old and new in my head. A crossover between Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon, one between Codename: Kids Next Door and Batman, one between Assassin's Creed and Codename: Kids Next Door, an Attack of Titan solo story, a Code: Lyoko crossover with My Life as a Teenage Robot and a crossover between Naruto and A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm thinking of doing the first one first, somewhere between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix for a bit and then switching back and forth until Harry Potter is done. The basic synopsis is that due to Multiverse theory that Usagi caused when she reset the universe after the destruction of the Dark Kingdom, Haruka Tenoh is instead born as Haruka Son, the twin sister of Son Gohan and the child of Goku and Chichi, the events of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z are combined and the story changes. I'm planning to make most of the DBZ movies canon, but with altered storylines in order to fit the narrative (only the last two Broly films before Dragon Ball Super won't be counted, I feel that the former plot would interfere with what I need to use from the DBS: Broly movie in regards to the story and the third film thus doesn't happen (also because the third film sucks)). I also intend to have Sailor Moon R: the Movie canon as well. I won't reveal what I intend to do, but I will promise you that I'm going to take a page out of Tribun's No Chance for Fate crossover between Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon and make it so that the Silver Millenium never happens. But I want to know what story idea you want me to do, so just put it down in the review section or send me a message. Now, on with the show. I do not own Harry Potter or Ed, Edd and Eddy. Those are owned by J.K. Rowling, At&t and Warner Media.
The Midnight Duel
Marie never thought that she'd meet a person more annoying than Eddy McGee. With his grating voice, his constant get rich quick schemes and his abrasive attitude, she never understood what Lee saw in him. In fact she was convinced that Lee didn't even like him and just went after him in order to teach him a lesson. Then she met Draco Malfoy. She hated everything about him. From his bleach blonde hair to his smarmy smile to his pale grey eyes to his arrogant attitude to the body guards that seemed to follow him everywhere, she hated Malfoy. Luckily for her, she only had Potions with the brat. So she didn't have to interact with him often, even if the down side was that she wasn't able to see Daphne much. At least, that was the case until a notice was put up in the Gryffindor common room that she saw after she got back from her detention with Snape where she forced her to meticulously categorize all of the ingredients in his cupboard (while he watched her, as if convinced that she would steal something from it). Flying lessons started on Thursday and Gryffindor would be sharing classes with the Slytherins.
"Typical." Harry stated darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy." "You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself." Ron said reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet it's all talk." "And besides, look on the bright side." Marie expressive passively. "At least you won't be the only one making themselves look like an idiot."
Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. So much so that Marie had been able to train herself to tune out his voice whenever he spoke. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters, tales that Marie didn't believe a word of as more likely than not he would've ended up on the news by now and the wizarding world would have no way of hiding themselves once they ended up on video tape.
He wasn't the only one though. Seamus would spend hours in the common room telling stories about his travels along the western coast of Ireland, zooming over the granite mountains and skimming across the waters of the Atlantic under the cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Even Ron would tell anyone who would listen about the time he had almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Everyone with at least one wizard in their family seemed obsessed with Quidditch. Ron had gotten into an argument with her and Dean over there prefered versions of football. Ron couldn't see the excitement about a game with one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had told her that he had caught Ron probing Dean's poster of the West Ham Football team, trying to make the players move, and she had caught him staring weirdly at her on Monday night when she was relaxing in the common moon when she was wearing her James Lofton Packers jersey.
Others were too busy panicking to care about the stories though. Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one (with good reason, as Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground). Hermione Granger was almost as nervous as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart from a book, though she did try. At breakfast on Thursday she bored almost all of them stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville and Sally-Anne Peaks were the only ones hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help them hang onto their brooms later, but everyone else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.
Marie saw that Hedwig didn't have another letter as she glided over to Harry and took a sip from his orange juice. She couldn't explain it, but she found Hedwig to be kind of soothing, as if her mere presence was all that she needed to know that things were as bad as they seemed. 'Maybe I should get myself an owl.' She then saw Malfoy openly gloating about the package of sweets that he got from home, his eagle owl perched on his shoulder. 'Just not that kind of owl.'
She then spotted a barn owl delivering a small package to Neville. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which was filled with white smoke. "It's a Rememberall!" he exclaimed. "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 as the Remembrall turned a bright scarlet. "...you've forgotten something…"
Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. Harry, Ron and Marie jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash. "What's going on?" she asked clippedly. "Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor." Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table. "Just looking," he muttered, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Marie scoffed. "Yeah, sure you were." She then picked up the Remembrall, which turned a light pink. "Neville, does this thing ever tell you what you've forgotten?" Neville shook his head. She returned it to him, put her arms on the table and huffed into them. "Freaking useless." she muttered softly.
At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, Marie and the rest of the Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, the cool wind bringing the last sigh of late summer before the torrential gusts of autumn would take it's waking breath. The grass rippled under their feet as they marched across the sloped lawn towards a smooth, flat field on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty one brooms in neat lines on the ground. Marie asked Fred and George what to expect from the lesson and had to endure a half hour long rant about how bad the school brooms, how some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left or how some of them were so slow that they were out stripped by passing horse flies. Marie had to calm them down before she could actually get them to tell her what to expect (and then she had to help them prank their brother afterward in order to cheer them up. She still wondered how on earth they were able to find a European adder). As they approached the brooms, she saw that Sally-Anne looked like she was about to faint. She gripped her by the shoulders, causing her to squeak in terrified panic. "It's okay, she's not going to have us do much today. Just see as learning how to ride a bike for the first time." Sally-Anne nodded swiftly, her breath coming out quickly and harshly as she hyperventilated. Marie guided her over to an empty space next to some female Slytherin with dark brown hair and took a position next to Daphne, who looked bored about the whole thing.
Their teacher, Madam Hooch, soon arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. Her face was just as sharp as her eyes, with a very thin mouth, a narrow nose and shallow cheeks. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Marie glanced down at the broom and winced. The broom looked as if it had hacked from a tree branch and loosely carved. She could even see that the broom still had a few knots in it and the twigs looked like they haven't been trimmed since the 70's.
"Stick your right hand over the broom," Madam Hooch commanded, "And say up." "UP!" everyone shouted. Marie's broom jumped up into her hand at once, but she was one of the only ones that happened to. Hermione's had simply rolled over on the ground, Neville's hadn't moved at all and Sally-Anne's had done little more than twitch. Perhaps the broom could detect fear, as Neville's voice had said clearly that he wanted to keep his feet firmly on the ground and Sally-Anne's had been barely audible.
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry, Ron and Marie were delighted when she told Malfoy that he had been doing wrong for years. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." she stated. "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 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 faster than a cork shot out of a bottle-twelve feet-twenty feet. Marie saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, gasp and slip sideways of his broom...right over her head. WHAM! There was a thud, the crack of a rifle went off and suddenly Marie found herself underneath a 103lb boy, her shoulder in agonizing pain. Through her wet eyes and the gap between Neville's armpit and his upper arm, she could see the broom drifting lazily towards the forbidden forest and out of sight.
Madam Hooch quickly got Neville off of Marie, a gasp of pain expelling from her throat when Neville put his hand on her right shoulder as he was standing back up. Even after he got up the pain in that area was intense. Madam Hooch gently lifted her up into a sitting position and gentle touching her shoulder, causing her to flinch in agony. "Oh dear, looks like you broke your clavicle when you broke Mr. Longbottom's fall. Come, let's get you up. Mr. Longbottom jammed his fingers when he landed on you, so I'm taking you to the hospital wing." As Madam Hooch got her to her feet, she saw Neville clutching his hand, his face stained with tears. Hooch then turned to the rest of the class. "None of you are to move while I take them to the hospital wing! If I see a single broom in the air, you'll all find yourselves out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'." She then guided Marie and Neville up to the castle.
"I swear this always happens. Some first year always hurts themselves while flying during lessons. I swear if they weren't required to learn, I would advocate their immediate termination." Madam Pomfrey was a very fussy and uptight witch, with a no nonsense attitude that would frighten a lion. Wearing her maroon matrons robes and white matron cap that matched her hair made her look like a normal middle aged nurse, but her steel gray eyes could intimidate even the most uncooperative patient and her lips seemed to always be fixed in a stern frown. She moved swiftly over to Marie, who laying down on her left side. "Although, this is the first time that we've had this happen before. I should be thanking you, if you hadn't disrupted Mr. Longbottom's fall, he would've broken his wrist." Marie snorted derisively. Madam Pomfrey cast a healing charm at the same time and suddenly the pain in Marie's shoulder was gone.
"There, do try to be more careful next time. I don't want to have to see you every week." Marie sat and rotated her right arm. "Don't worry, I don't intend to." She seethed, glaring at Neville, who was sitting on the bed across from her, as she did so. She got some satisfaction from seeing him flinch. Luckily, Pomfrey didn't see. "Alright then, the two of you are free to go. I already told Rolanda that you were excused for the rest of class, so you don't have to worry about missing it." Marie nodded curtly and tore out of the hospital wing, Neville jogging to keep up with her.
"Marie! Marie wait!" Marie was zooming down the corridor, too angry to deal with Neville. She knew logically that it wasn't Neville's fault that she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but she was just too mad to care. She hoped that if she could keep far ahead of the chubby boy, she could lose him. Unfortunately, Neville was very determined to apologize. "Marie!" He quickly moved in front of her, blocking her from ascending the staircases back to the Gryffindor common room. "Marie, I'm sorry that I…" "That I what?!" She interrupted harshly. "That you broke my collarbone? Or that you cost me my first day of flying classes?" Neville stammered, scared nearly out of his mind. "Um...both?" Marie's glare intensified.
"Neville, I have never flown before. I know that to you, being the accident prone screw up that you are, would consider never flying to be one of the greatest things to possibly happen to you. Well, not for me. You see I, unlike you, have a very crappy life. I don't know who my father is, I rarely see my mom because she's working all the time and I live in a trailer park down by the #$%&ing river! I used to only eat two meals a day on the reg, my clothes have to be bought cheaply at the bargain bin and I'm seen as a trailer hick!" She then harshly grabbed Neville's tie and yanked it up so that his terrified eyes could see it. "You see this!? This is the best piece of clothing that I own! A Goddamn school uniform! Do you know how shitty that makes me feel!? DO YAH!?" Neville fearfully shook his head in the negative. "PRETTY GODDAMN SHITTY!" She shoved him to the floor, leering over him like an angry bear.
"Now," she stated softly, venom oozing with every syllable. "Why am I bringing this up? How does this connect to the flying lessons?" Neville, shaking in terror answered timidly. "You, you, you want to escape from your life?" "Very good, Nev. Now, try to put yourself in the shoes of a girl that doesn't know about magic. How would she want to get far away?" "Fl-Fly?" he stammered. "EXACTLY!" she shouted. The two of them breathed for half a minute, Neville taking terrified, shallow breaths and Marie taking angry heaves. Marie then walked around Neville started ascending the stairs. She stopped on top of the landing. "Neville, I just don't want to deal with you right now." she said quietly. "So please, just leave me alone."
When Marie went down to the Great Hall an hour later, her mood hadn't really improved. She had tried to distract herself from her anger and her guilt by working on a still life of some of the lamps, discarded books and a few of the chairs in the common room, but she didn't like the designs of the chairs, the light that came through the windows and from the fireplace clashed horribly and there were too many students moving around to let her work, so she had abandoned it before she could start, resolving to work on it some other time. It was times like this that she wished she had a CD player. Listening to albums like Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Ride the Lightning and Quedraphenia always helped to cheer her up and to focus on her coursework, but she didn't have anything to listen with and after reading Hogwarts: A History, she knew that buying an iPod or an MP3 player would be a waste of time. And she had no idea where to get vinyl.
She saw an open seat next to Ron, but noticed that Harry wasn't there for some reason. "Where's Harry?" she asked as she sat down and filled her plate with some grilled chicken kebabs and some chips. "Don't know," Ron mumbled as he sampled some steak and kidney pie. "Suspect he's still with Professor McGonagall." "Why's that? I know that he wasn't having that much trouble with Transfiguration homework." "It's not that." Ron stated warrily. "Something happened in flying class after you left. See, when Neville fell, his remembrall fell out of his pocket." Marie winced. "Well Malfoy saw and picked it up. Harry tried to get him to give it back, but Malfoy was, well." "Malfoy." "Yes. So he took off on his broom, saying that he'll put the remembrall up a tree. Harry took off after him and tried to get Malfoy to release the remembrall by charging him. Malfoy decided to chuck it and Harry took off after it." Ron eyes glazed over slightly. "And Harry is an amazing flyer. He was able to catch the ball after a fifteen meter dive on a school broom and come out of it unscratched." Ron then grimaced. "I since a 'but' in there Ron." Marie conveyed sternly. "But, McGonagall saw the whole thing and took Harry up to the castle. Haven't seen him since."
Marie glared down at her food, before idly nibbly on a chip. She was just about to think of ways to try to get back at Malfoy when he saw Harry walking down the aisle, looking surprisingly happy. "Harry!" Ron exclaimed in relieved surprise. "What happened after you left, our entire year was worried about you." Harry sat down and smirked. "Well, after we left McGonagall took me to the charms classroom and introduced me to Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. We had a bit of a talk and now I'm to new seeker for Gryffindor."
Marie didn't know what that meant, but Ron's eyes were bugging out of his head, a piece of steak hanging forgotten from his fork halfway to his mouth. "You're joking!" he exclaimed. "Seeker? But first years never-you must be the youngest player in about a -" "-century." Harry finished, shoving pie into his mouth as he did so. "Wood told me." Ron sat there, gaping in amazed disbelief. "I start training next week," Harry then looked around before whispering to them. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret." Marie nodded as Fred and George sat down next to Harry. "Well done," George uttered quietly. "Wood told us. We're on the team too, Beaters." "I tell you, we're going to win the Quidditch cup this year for sure," Fred declared. "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 reckons he 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."
No sooner had Fred and George left when the Malfoy showed up with his two giant shadows. "Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting a train back to the muggles?" he sneered arrogantly. "To answer those questions you insufferable twit, no he isn't and in June just like most of us. Do you seriously have nothing better to do than annoy us?" Marie asked irritably. Malfoy scowled. "Like I need to lower myself to interacting with filth like you." he spat. "You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you." Harry observed coolly. There was nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, as they were both sentient combinations of a love child of a gorilla and Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl. Marie was however rather happy that Goyle was looking at her warily. "Speaking of which, Goyle how's your hand doing?" she asked innocently. Goyle backed up slightly, eliciting an evil grin to spread across her face.
Malfoy must've noticed, because he look apocalyptic. "I'd take you on anytime on my own." Malfoy exclaimed snidely. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only-no contact." Harry looked at Malfoy both confused and apprehensive. "What's that matter?" Malfoy asked smuggly. "Never heard of a wizard's duel I suppose?" "Of course he has." Ron interjected rashly. "I'm his second, who'd yours?" Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up. "Crabbe. Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked." He then strode haughtily away.
Harry quickly turned to Ron in a slight panic. "What is a wizard's duel?" he asked. "And what do you mean, you're my second?" "Well, a second's there to take over if you die." Ron replied casually. "WHAT?!" Marie grabbed Ron by his collar and looked ready to throttle him, so he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most Harry and Malfoy will be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of them knows enough to do any real damage. I bet he expected him to refuse anyway." He laughed nervously as Marie's glare still bore into him. "You have a point." she admitted reluctantly as she let go of him. "But what if he waves his wand and nothing happens?" "Simple." he answered matter of factly. "He just throws it away and pushes Malfoy in the nose." Marie smirked, the image of Malfoy's nose shattering, bits of blood and cartilage spraying across the castle's stone floor making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. They were then interrupted.
"Excuse me." They all looked up and saw that they had been interrupted by Hermione. And she did not look happy. "Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron muttered angrily. Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry. "I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying-" "Bet you could." Ron stated. "-you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose for 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 responded curtly. "Good bye." Ron dismissively said.
All and all it wasn't the best way to end the day, Marie thought as she walked back from the library, a copy of The British Wizard's Code Duello: Proper Etiquette and Guidelines for Disagreements and Duels by Joseph Cornrad under her arms as she headed back towards the common room. She hadn't seen Neville since she lashed out at him for accidentally breaking her collar bone (something she started to regret more and more with each passing minute) and had no idea where he was, and now her friend was doing something stupid. While she admitted that she had done stupid things in retribution for slights, even she wasn't stupid enough to challenge someone to a fight after dark. She had seen too many of those tragic results in Englewood to even consider doing it.
She entered the common room and saw the rest of the house mates loitering around the room (something she still hadn't quite gotten used to) and went over to Ron and Harry who were sitting on the couch in front of the fire. "Okay, this should tell us how a duel is conducted, since Harry and I don't know what it entails and you, Ron, probably need a refresher." Ron nodded reluctantly as Marie turned the pages, to the rules section.
Step 1: The Challenge
When conducting a duel, one has to understand the severity of the disagreement. A minor dispute is not something that should be used to justify a duel, whereas a major attack on someone's honor or the honor of their family through either public humiliation or harm caused to loved one is something that is more justifiable. Despite this, it is possible for the duel to not happen at all. If a challenge is declared, more often than not it is to get the other party to back down. If the challenged party back downs after the challenge is declared, then no further action is necessary and the two parties can part amicably.
"Well we're not doing that." Harry remarked bitterly. "If I back down now, Malfoy's going to be crowing about it to the rest of the school by tomorrow morning. What's the next step?"
Step 2: Acquiring a Second
If the challenge goes forward, than both sides need a Second. The Second is the most important aspect of preparing for a duel, as the Seconds help the dueling participants prepare for the duel as well as conduct negotiations between the two parties.
"God, can you imagine me negotiating with Crabbe? He probably wouldn't understand a word I'm saying." Ron commented.
Step 3: Negotiations
At this point the duel can still be called off, as it is likely that the challenged accepted the challenge to save face with his peers or that the challenger's emotions were too intense to think through the implications. At this stage the Seconds can meet to peacefully resolve the disagreement in private, through either a retraction of a prior statement, the payment of some monetary compensation or through a public display of reconciliation that would be agreed upon between the two parties, much like a settlement in a court case. If, however, the disagreement is too severe for such a reconciliation or if neither side is willing to back down or agree to the terms, then the Seconds are to negotiate a time and place that the duel would take place, as well as the weapons that will be used. This is usually decided a few weeks in advance to allow the parties to settle their affairs if necessary.
"Well we've already done that, and you're not going to do much damage to each other anyway so we can skip this part." Marie stated as she turned the page.
Step 4: The Treatment of the Medic
Should negotiations break down, then a doctor needs to be hired. Wounds and injuries are guaranteed to happen and proper medical treatment is needed to either restore the defeated party, treat the subject for curses or to heal them from either cutting charms or broken bones. The doctor must be paid by both sides in advance in case of death and must be treated with civility by both sides. Before the duel, the doctor will turn away from the duel so that he could have deniability in case this is brought up in court.
"We can't tell anybody else about this, so we'll skip this."
Step 5: Choosing the Duel Site
Before the duel, both parties will travel to the site of the duel and determine where exactly the duel will take place. The site tends to be a flat location with few hills, so as not to give an unfair advantage, or at the top of a hill. The ground must be dry, so that no one slips when they're spinning around to fire at their opponent.
"Well, the trophy room counts as a dry location and neither of us will have the advantage, so we don't need to do that." Harry muttered.
Step 6: Final Correspondence and Confession
Before the duel, both participants should leave a note for their kinsmen in case they fall during the duel, so that they don't need to commit any retaliation against the winning party. Both parties should also pray to the gods Hecate and Mecnivane for the power to beat their opponents and to the gods Pluto and Ankou that they are taken safely to the afterlife.
"Heh, retaliation. If Malfoy somehow kills me, I'm sure the Dursley's would send him a letter of thanks for doing them a favor." Marie and Ron looked at Harry with concern before turning back to the book.
Step 7: Confrontation
On the day of the duel the two opponents are to meet, unarmed to face each other on the open field on the determined time. If one of the parties does not show up within a period of three hours after the alloted time, the other one is the winner by default. If neither party doesn't show, then the duel is cancelled and both parties our dishonored.
"Should help if Malfoy doesn't show. Show his true colors, that slimy snake." Ron remarked bitterly.
Step 8: Final Negotiations
This is the last chance to resolve the dispute between the two parties. The Seconds will cross the field and give the final terms between the two sides. If the two sides agree to the terms, the two sides will shake hands and disperse amicably. If neither side backs down, then talks will cease and the duel will commence.
"Fat chance of that happening." Marie scoffed.
Step 9: The Final Count
The opponents will take their decided weapons (usually wands or staves) and check to make sure they are in working order. Once decided, the two parties will face away from each other and count out a distance of ten paces to allow for a better margin of error.
Step 10: Commencement
The duel begins and the two sides will continue it until one party is either first blood is drawn, one of the participants is unable to continue or one of the parties is dead.
"Okay, least we can claim victory if Malfoy is setting us up." "What, you think that Malfoy won't show up?" Ron asked. Marie turned to him. "I trust Malfoy as far as I can throw him, and it's pretty damn far. He won't show, and if he does then he's a bigger idiot than I thought." Harry and Ron pondered it, as if they had not considered the possibility till then. "We can't take the risk." Harry decided. "If Malfoy shows up and I don't, then I'll never hear the end of it from him. We're going." Marie put the book down and gazed at Harry. "You're being an idiot." "Maybe I am, but it's my decision."
Night came. The whole castle was shadowed in darkness, the barest sliver of the waxing moon visible between the gaps in the clouds. Marie had been laying up, waiting for the rest of her roommates to go to sleep. She had even dressed up in her sleep clothes in order to throw people off. She was nervous, her limbs were tense as if coiled into a spring and every sound uttered by her roommates, from Sally-Anne's quiet coo's to Pavarti's snores, were pounding in her head like a bass drum. She knew that this was a bad idea. No doubt they were likely to get caught by Filch, or worse Snape. But she knew that she had to go, if only to prevent them from doing something even more stupid.
Around 11:30 she got up and threw a robe over her body and put her wand in one of the pockets. She didn't trust Malfoy to not try something if he showed up to give himself an advantage. She crept down the spiral staircase and entered the common room. Ron and Harry came down the other staircase, garbed in their bathrobes and looking just as tense as she was. "Hey, I know this is out of the blue, but has Neville come back yet?" Harry and Ron looked at each other. "No, I thought he was still in the hospital wing." Ron answered. Marie's eyes widened. "Shit, that means that he's out somewhere in the hall. We got to go now before he's found."
The three of them were nearly at the portrait when a voice emerged from the darkness. "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry." A lamp flickered on, revealing Hermione in a pink bathrobe and with a stern frown on her face. Marie groaned. "Oh course you were up, you never did come back to bed." Harry glared at Hermione, before charging towards the portrait holes. "Come on," he gestured frustratingly, clearly hoping to leave unmolested. But Hermione wasn't one to be deterred and followed them through the portrait hole, hissing like an angry goose. "Don't you care about Gryffindor? Do you only care about 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." Ron groaned in exasperation. "All right!" Hermione snapped. "But I warned you! You just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so-" But what they were, they never found out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty frame. The Fat Lady had gone on a night time visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor Tower.
"Now what am I going to do?" Hermione asked shrilly. "That's your problem." Ron responded carelessly. "We've got to go, we're going to be late." They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione had caught up with them. "I'm coming with you." "You are not." Ron replied indignantly. "D'you think that 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." "You've got some nerve-" Ron exclaimed loudly. "Shut up, both of you!" Harry said sharply. "I heard something." There was a sort of snuffling. "Mrs. Norris?" Ron breathed, squinting through the dark.
It wasn't Mrs. Norris, it was Neville. "Neville." Marie sprinted closer to him, waking him up once she reached him. "Neville, where the hell have you been? And why are you out here?" Neville looked at Marie timidly. "I went to the greenhouses to help out Professor Sprout with some plants and lost track of time. By the time I got back it was well after dinner and I couldn't remember the password. I've been out here for hours." Marie looked behind her and saw that the other three had caught up to them. "The password's 'Pig snout', but it won't help you right now. The Fat Lady's decided to go for an evening stroll and has gone off somewhere." "How's the arm?" Harry asked politely. "Fine," Neville replied, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey fixed it in about a minute." "Good." Harry checked his watch. "Well, look Neville, we've got to be somewhere. We'll see you later-" "Don't leave me!" Neville panicky interrupted. "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already!" Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville. "If either of you gets us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you." Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed her silent and beckoned them forward into the night.
They flitted along the corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Marie expected them to run into Filch, Mrs. Norris or one of the other teachers, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed towards the trophy room. Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there. The crystal trophy cases glimmered in the torchlight. Cups, shields, plates and statues of gold, silver and bronze shone in the darkness. They edged along the wall, keeping their eyes on the doors on either side of the room. Harry took out his wand, ready in case Malfoy tries an ambush. The minutes crept by. Midnight came and went. Fifthteen minutes. Thirty minutes. Forty five minutes.
"He's late, maybe he's chickened out." Ron whispered after an hour had gone by. Marie huffed. 'Looks like I was right. What a waste of time.' Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had barely raised his wand when they heard a voice that chilled them to the bone. "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch, speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved at the four of them to follow him as they quickly scurried through the opposite door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely disappeared round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter. "Probably hiding." "This way!" Harry mouthed to the others, and petrified, they followed as they crept along a long gallery filled with suits of armor. They heard Filch getting nearer and Neville, in a panic tried to run. But in the near pitch black darkness, he couldn't see where he was going and crashed into Ron, sending the two of them toppling into one of the suits of armor. The clanging and crashing of steel on stone seemed to wake up the whole castle as Harry, Hermione and Marie could only watch in frozen terror as the noise echoed throughout the near empty floor.
"RUN!" Harry shouted as he sprinted down the gallery. The other four quickly followed in a frantic sprint, none of them daring to look back to see if the living Crypt Keeper was following them. They swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor and then another, without any idea where they were and where they were going, just knowing that they wanted to put as much distance between them and Filch as was humanly possible. They hurtled out through a tapestry, down a hidden passageway and come out near the Charms classroom on the third floor.
"I think we lost him." Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was doubled over, looking like he was dry heaving. Ron was breathing heavily in aggravated gulps and Hermione looked like she was nearly suffered a collapsed lung. Only Marie was lightly panting, as she was used to running long distances for long periods of time. "I-told-you" Hermione gasped, holding a stitch in her side as she did so. "I-told-you." "We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower as quickly as possible." Ron conveyed, looking around the corridor to make sure no one was coming. Marie marched over to Harry, glaring at him the entire time. She then grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the wall. "I warned you. Malfoy was never going to show up. You knew it, I knew it and yet you still decided to come out here because of your goddamn pride." She let go, letting him fall to the floor. "The smiley rat must've told Filch that we would be there tonight. It was all a set up." She clenched her finger in the air, imagining that the area was Malfoy's neck. "Oh, when I get my heads on that little brat I'm going to…" What she was going to do he didn't say, as at that moment a door knob rattled and a small implike figure shoot out of the classroom in front of them.
It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight. "Shut up Peeves-please-you'll get us thrown out." Harry pleaded. "Wandering around at one in the morning, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty." "Not if you don't even us away. Peeves, please." Harry begged desperately. "Should tell Filch, I should." Peeves mussed in a saintly voice, which was mostly ruined by his eyes glittering wickedly. Then Ron did something stupid. "Get out of the way." he snapped angrily and tried to punch him in the face, which Peeves easily dodged. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives down to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door-and it was locked.
"That's it!" Ron moaned as they pushed helplessly against the door. "We're down for! This is the end!" "Quiet being so melodrantic you ninny and push harder." Marie shouted as she rammed her shoulder into the door. "It's like they put a deadbolt on this thing." They heard Filch's foot steps, getting louder and louder as he got closer to Peeves's shouts. "Oh, move over." Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock and whispered, "Alohomora." The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against the door.
"Which way did they go Peeves?" Filch snarled. "Quick, tell me." "Say, please." "Don't mess with me Peeves. Which. Way. Did. They. Go?" "Shan't say nothing if you don't say please!" Peeves sang annoyingly. "All right-please?" "NOTHING! Hahahahaha!" He laughed mockingly. "Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Hahahahahaha!" They then heard Peeves woosh cheerfully away, Filch cursing fouly after him. "He thinks this door is locked." Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay-get off, Neville." Neville had been tugging on Harry's robe for about a minute. Marie was about to tell him to knock it off when she saw the terrified look on his face and that his eyes were constantly flicking behind him. Marie turned around and immediately wished she hadn't. They weren't in a room. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And she now knew why is was forbidden.
She wondered if this is how Orpheus felt when he first saw Cerberus as he entered the Underworld to reclaim his love Eurydice. That ceaseless terror that would cloud the mind and lock the body in place. Your brain would scream at your legs to run as far away as you can, but you are so consumed by fear that the body refuses to respond. Your mouth becomes dry as all it can emit is a silent scream, all noise is lost as all you can hear is the beating of your heart as it pounded throughout your head. Your bladder and bowls fill as you want to void yourself, but you're so tense that you're unable to release. All you can do and stare at your doom. How Orpheus got the courage to confront Cerberus she had no idea, cause she certainly would like some of that right now.
Somehow, someway, a cerberus existed. At a towering ten meters tall and with three heads each the size of a large weather balloon it filled the entire space. Their savage lemon yellow eyes salivated at them, their massive mouths glistened with yellow teeth the size of great swords. Dimly, Marie realized it was only because they had caught the cerberus by surprise that they weren't dead yet, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls ment.
Harry and Marie leaped for the door handle. Between Filch and death, they'd take Filch. They fell backward-Harry slammed the door shut and they ran. They flew back down the corridor, hardly caring where they went. They were lucky that they didn't encounter Filch as they tore through the castle as if the spawn of hell were on their fields, as they would've likely trambled him. They didn't stop running until they reached the Fat Lady's portrait on the seventh floor. "Where on earth have you been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes and flushed faces. "Never mind that. Pig snout, Pig snout." Harry panted desperately. The portrait opened up and they all scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling into the armchairs.
It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville looked as if he'd never speak again and Marie had to clench the armrests in order to keep her hands from shaking. "What do you think their doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked finally. "If there's a dog that needs exercise, that one does." Hermione had gotten both her breath and her temper back. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped "Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Marie goggled at her incredulously. "What it was standing on? I was more focused on the fact that my nightmares have come to life! Why should I focus on the floor it was standing on?!" "It wasn't just standing on the floor. It was standing on a trap door. It's obviously guarding something." she replied haughtily. She stood up, glaring at them all. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could have gotten all killed-or worse, expelled." Everyone looked at her dumbfounded. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Ron watched her go, his mouth agape. "No, we don't mind." He then turned to the others. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?" He said, annoyance oozing from his mouth. Marie rubbed her temples, still in disbelief that Hermione would say something so stupid. "She really needs to sort out her priorities." She looked up and saw that Neville looked like his was about to pass out as the full weight of what had happened started to crash down on him. "Hey guys, why don't you go up to bed. I'm going to stay here with Neville for a bit." Ron and Harry nodded and left. Marie went over to Neville. He looked at her, fearfully. Marie nervously opened up her arms, unsure if he'll respond. Neville, tears trickling from his eyes, leaped from the chair and grabbed her in a vice. He clung to her like a life line as he sobbed into her shoulders while Marie felt this strange feeling, and she couldn't tell if it was relief, or remorse.
Sorry about the wait, my internet modem needed to be replaced and I had to send out quite a few resumes now that the Christmas season is over. I hope you like the ending, I've been turning it around in my head for a week. I originally intended to have it be a longer scene, about two to three pages in length, but when I got to it, I just decided that the emotions were too raw for it to work and decided to go with a shorter and more silent ending. Next chapter is back to the cul-de-sac and then I'm going to do both the Hogwarts chapter and the omake in one go, just to see how an idea works before following it with just another Hogwarts chapter and then a separate second omake to see if that style works better. I hope to see you soon and hopefully I get a new job before spring.
