Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! I hope you all had an amazing week. We've been super busy here dealing with lots of stuff but I managed to get this chapter finished on time! I hope you all enjoy.

Beer of the Week: This week I drank Troegs Lucky Holler while writing and I was SUPER pleased with it! I'm not normally an IPA gal but this NE IPA had me going back for another drink. It was smooth with a creamy mouth-feel and notes of pineapple and passion fruit from the galaxy hops that the beer features. Honestly, I'm game for any beer that features galaxy—it's such a crushable hop that goes well in any beer!

Reviews: Midnitewanderer: Hey, hey, hey, that was totally in his office. His office has a very comfortable couch for when he needs a quick nap. Of course, that couch does have other, more interesting uses! You'll have to wait and see on the Remadora front though. I'll get to that fallout soon. I 100% agree that Ginny would have a great relationship with all of her brothers and I fully intend on emphasizing that throughout my story. I'm glad you liked my tattoo idea; I thought it was very Tonks esc. Glad you loved that chapter so much! There will be more, I promise! ProfessorMarauder: I always wondered that myself. I think JK just didn't want to go too much into detail about it because Fluffy never makes a reappearance. You'll learn more about cerberus' this chapter for sure!

Potter671: Thank you! I love when I'm able to put their letters into action. I'm having so much fun figuring out how to morph the Hinny relationship organically. Honestly, the Ginny portions of my chapters have been the most fun. She's honestly one of my favorite characters and I think that JK and other fic writers seriously underestimate her. I read a story on this site about Ginny and Harry being tomb raiders that just gave this amazing depiction of her character. I think it was by Rryder810. I'm so glad that my story is that important to your week! It's my husband's first time watching SPN but it's my 5th or 6th time. Still find new things to love about it. PunksterNL: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! I've never done a full-on smut writing session so I was definitely worried that it wouldn't turn out as good as I had hoped it would. Your comment tells me it totally did!

Smallwjl: Oh Charlie DEFEINITELY found that out by doing some in person research, 100%. I'm super hype to start including him as a character, he's one of my personal faves. I didn't want to slow-burn Remadora for too long but if I introduced it too quickly it wouldn't be believable. But trust me, I have plans. So many, mischievous plans! Young Coffee God: Yassss. I want a shower beer fridge in my bathroom one day. And a beer shelf. WinkingSkeever: Ask and you shall receive oh kind Skeever!

Thank you everyone for reviewing! I can't wait to see what you all think of this update. Please remember to review! Your reviews remind me that I'm not just writing for myself anymore, but all of you who follow my story!

Chapter Forty: Halloween

Zabini was surprised to see Harry and company still at school the next morning. Harry gave Zabini a bold look, hoping he managed to convene to Zabini that he should watch himself. As Harry and Draco discussed possible pranks to get back at Zabini throughout the next week, nothing they came up with seemed quite right as payback.

At breakfast the next week, the group of friends' attention was captivated by a long, thin parcel being carried by several owls during the morning mail delivery. As they watched the owls flying further into the Great Hall as each of them contemplated what could be in the package and who it might be for.

They watched in surprise as the package landed in front of Harry, knocking over his goblet full of pumpkin juice in the process. It was at that moment that Harry realized what was inside of it. In his excitement he nearly tore open the wrappings before Hermione stopped him and held out the note attached to it.

"Harry stop!" she whispered sharply, "The note says not to open it here. It's from—McGonagall?"

Harry furrowed his brow, "It's not from my dad?" He reached out and took the note from Hermione and read it aloud quietly to Ron, Hermione, and Draco, "'Do not open the parcel at the table. It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everyone knowing you've got a broom or they'll all want one. Congratulations on getting onto the team—Oliver will meet you tonight at seven for your first training. Make me proud. Your favorite grandmother, Minnie. P.S. Don't expect a Christmas or birthday present from me this year. This counts for both.' Nana got it for me! She's the best. She had to have spent a fortune on this!"

Harry looked up to the head table where he saw McGonagall deeply engrossed in conversation with Professor Dumbledore but he could have sworn he saw the hint of a smile on her face. Harry beamed and snatched up the parcel before standing up at the table, "I'll see you three in class. I have to go talk to my dad."

"Do you want me to go drop that off in our dormitory?" Ron said eyeing the package excitedly, "I don't mind."

"You're going to let me go for a spin, right Harry?" Draco asked as he ran his hand over the packaging, "I remember taking a turn on your dad's broom and it was awesome."

"You took blondie to ride your dad's broom but not me?" Ron asked incredulously.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I took Draco so he could get away from home. And dad could only bring two people to practice. You can both have a turn on this one, ok? I got to go though if I want to get ahold of him before class. But, yeah, Ron, if you could drop this off I'd owe you one. Thanks!"

Ron quickly snatched up the broom and ran off towards the Gryffindor dormitory, leaving Draco looking slightly disappointed that the broom was gone. As Harry stood up to run out of the room, Draco grabbed his arm, "Hey, Harry?"

"What's up?"

"Well—I signed up to try out for the Ravenclaw quidditch team. Try-outs are this weekend and I'm up for the seeker position. Do you think you could come out and train with me Friday night or Saturday morning?"

"Yeah! Ron would probably come out, too, if you'd like."

Draco rubbed the back of his neck, "Look, I love Ron, too. He's one of my best friends. But—to be honest I'm really nervous about this try out and the less people trying to give me advice the better I think."

"I can keep him busy for the day," Hermione offered, "He can be quite overwhelming sometimes, I can understand needing to do something like this without him."

Draco nodded and then turned back to Harry, his eyes pleading, "Can you help?"

Harry sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I'll help you. Let's meet on Friday ok?"

Draco nodded and Harry turned on his heel and headed out of the Hall and into an empty classroom off the Entry Hall. Once he was sure he was alone, Harry pulled out his mirror and called for his dad. After a few minutes James' face appeared in the glass looking concerned.

"Harry! Is everything ok? It's still early"

"Yeah. Dad! Guess what Nana got me!" Harry quickly told James all about the events of this morning. In his excitement he stumbled over some of the words he was trying to say while James' smile grew wider.

"I was wondering when Minnie was going to send that to you. She had asked me whether I was going to get you a broom for quidditch. I had told her that I thought your old Clean Sweep would do fine for the school team but she wouldn't hear of it. Make sure to thank her because she wouldn't take any money from any of us."

"Next time I see her out of class I will. Draco said he's trying out for the Ravenclaw team, too."

"Is he? I haven't talked to Draco in a few days. I've been getting worried about him since Sirius had the run-in with old Lucy at the Ministry."

Just then the bell rang indicating the first classes of the day were beginning, "Hey dad, I'll talk to you later. Class is starting and I'm going to be late."

"Ok. Stay out of trouble."

Harry glanced away from the mirror before responding, "Yup, no problem! By dad!"

Harry quickly put the mirror back into his pocket and took off towards class. He wasn't ready to tell James about his encounter with the three headed dog just yet.

~ID~

James sighed and put his mirror away. He knew something was up with Harry but he wasn't sure what it was or what was going on. He just hoped that Harry was keeping himself out of trouble. He looked up as he heard someone walking into his office and nodded at Sirius who was holding a few pieces of parchment in his hands.

"We got letters back from Dumbledore accepting our requests to reclaim our family seats. He just needs my father's death certificate before the next session. I've already sent it out his way. He did comment that he hadn't heard about any werewolf legislation I had mentioned in my letter so that makes me feel a little better. I wonder if Lucy just made some shit up to scare us."

James thought about that for a moment before replying, "I mean, he definitely could have embellished. But I am concerned about his comments to the effect of revealing Remus to the board of governors. How does he know that Remus is a werewolf?"

"The registry?" Sirius asked, shrugging.

"He shouldn't have access to the werewolf registry. It's supposed to be kept by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and be kept private so that werewolves aren't subjected to more prejudice just because they followed Ministry safety protocols."

Sirius nodded, "That doesn't mean he didn't manage to get ahold of that information. Plus, he was a death eater during the war—he probably knew the wolf that turned Moony."

"I just think he's mostly talk. Lucy doesn't have the balls to do anything too egregious to us or Moony. If he did, he wouldn't have claimed Imperius and would be in Azkaban right now as a loyal Voldemort follower."

"Anyway, the next meeting is Wednesday. Dumbledore said our robes will be ready and sent to us on Tuesday."

"Perfect. Hey, you never told me what happened at the Ministry when you went to take care of Walburga's will."

Sirius ran his fingers through his thick, black hair and sighed, "Right. Uh, well, apparently everything goes to me."

James sat back up stock straight, confusion written all over his face, "What do you mean it all goes to you? There was a mix up, right? Your parents disowned you."

"Right. Apparently they didn't change their wills after Reg passed away. They had taken me out of the will before and made Reg the full beneficiary but they didn't change it to someone else after he died. And he was supposed to get everything so they didn't list anyone to get the residue. So, the Ministry interpreted the will as if mum had died uh…what's the word they used…intestate? As if they didn't have a will. Which means—it's all mine. Not that I want it. I mean, it's a nice amount of gold and controlling shares in some companies we owned, but I also get Kreacher and Grimmauld Place. As if I want either of those. I haven't gone to look at the house."

"You really need to. You need to take inventory of everything in there and get it cleaned out. Your dad had so many dark objects in the house who knows what kind of state it's in."

"Yeah. I want to get out there this week and start looking into it. I was hoping that the family library had more information on Horcruxes or on Voldemort. Since my parents were super into the dark arts and Reg joined up, I'm wondering if we can find some useful information."

"I didn't even think about that. I bet we could talk Moony into going to check it out this weekend. We'll have to have Kreacher tell us if there's anything in the house that might help us in our search. He has to have a catalogue of everything. And we can bring Gus and Cirri to help clean everything out. They'd enjoy the work, I think. They get bored here sometimes."

Sirius nodded, "Yeah. Moony was supposed to stop over around now—we can ask if he's free Saturday to come check it out with us. I'm telling you now that I'm not looking forward to dealing with that portrait my mother put up of herself. She put a permanent sticking charm on that and I don't think we'll ever get it off. We'll have to figure out how to deal with her bullshit."

"We'll figure it out. You said he was supposed to stop by soon? Where is he, then?"

Sirius shrugged, "Who knows. He was supposed to have a meeting with Tonks last week and I had been hoping to hear from him about it. it should be an interesting story."

"Why? What did you do?" James asked, exasperated.

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows, "I didn't do anything. I just gave my cousin some helpful advice to achieve a specified end result."

"I really don't like where this is going."

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows again just as they heard someone making their way up the stairs, calling for them.

"We're in the office!" James shouted. A moment later Remus strolled in through the office door looking exhausted and worn out.

"Well, well, well," Sirius said as he crossed his arms, "Look what the wolf dragged in."

Remus shot Sirius a nasty look, "I've got a bone to pick with you."

"I hope that you're keeping that furry problem in check and you mean a metaphorical bone to pick."

Remus growled at Sirius, "Of course I do. Then again, it's so close to the full moon that I might not have. What were you playing at telling Dora to come to my office dressed like that? Now I have to clean up this mess and I don't have time to deal with that."

"I hope the mess isn't too sticky."

Remus snarled at Sirius again, "You know what I mean! Telling her how to dress and look and what to do to—to entice me I suppose? What are you playing at? She's eighteen for gods sake, Sirius! I'm a monster."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "You're not a monster, Moony. She came to me for help in convincing you to act on your feelings. She knew you were attracted to her but she wasn't sure how to convince you that the age gap doesn't matter."

"Even without the age gap there's the entire other, glaring problem, of the wolf in the room! Aka, me! How is she going to feel when she finds that out? You're setting both of us up for heart break."

"Oh come on, has she even said anything about a relationship?"

"No but I know women like Dora, she's going to want one. She wants a marriage and kids."

"You don't know that. You haven't even talked to her about it."

"I'm sorry," James interrupted, confusion written across his face, "Did I miss something here? What happened between Moony and Tonks?"

Remus' face went red as he covered it with his hand and sighed, "Dora—Dora came by my office to pick up the documents we had been working on dressed—she looked quite provocative. And honestly, Padfoot I swear if you helped pick out her outfit I just—"

"Totally did. Glad you enjoyed my fashion sense!"

Remus shuttered, "She showed up dressed like she'd just walked out of my fantasy dreams and started talking about this date she was supposed to have that night and I—I just got so jealous. And we—well, we uh, shagged. Three times throughout the night. And it was bloody brilliant but it can't happen again."

"You convinced Tonks to seduce Moony?" James asked and when Sirius nodded proudly, James clapped him on the back, "Good on you! That tension was ready to blow and I did not want to be the one in the middle of that."

Remus looked back and forth from James to Sirius, shock and disbelief on his face, "You're kidding me, right? You're supporting him?"

"I think she'd be good for you, Moony. She's smart and strong and as hard-headed as you are. She's an auror; if there's anyone out there who can handle your furry problem, it's Tonks. Honestly, Lily would have approved of her and I definitely do."

"What would her parents say? I'm definitely not the kind of man they envisioned for her."

Sirius snorted, "Dromeda loves you and Ted would be happy as long as Tonks is happy. Please, that's the weakest excuse you've had yet as to why you shouldn't date Tonks. You're just afraid of the fact that she's perfect for you in every way."

"Whether she's perfect for me is neither here nor there. It's whether I'm good for her that's at issue. I would ruin her life. What would happen to her career if anyone found out that she was sleeping with a werewolf? She would become a social pariah. And that's not even considering the fact that she's a former student. What kind of implications would that raise if we decided to start a relationship only a year after she finished school? The rumors alone—I can't do that to her."

"So don't go public right away. Have you talked to Tonks about all of this or have you just been ignoring her for a week?"

Remus didn't answer Sirius but, rather, continued to look pointedly away from his friends and shoved his hands into his pockets.

James and Sirius exchanged a concerned look before James piped up, "Maybe we should ask Tonks what she has to say about all of this?"

"No!" Remus shouted at him, holding his hands up, before clearing his throat, "I mean, no, let's not just yet. I need time to figure out what happened between us before I talk to her again."

"You can't just leave her hanging," Sirius said, "I mean, I'm normally the kind of person to love em' and leave em' but even I know that for someone like Tonks you just don't do that."

"I'm just not ready. I'll talk to her before the end of the weekend, ok?"

James and Sirius sighed, they weren't going to get anything better out of Remus today, "Before you head out, James and I are going to head to Grimmauld Place on Saturday to do some inventorying of items and to see if the family library has any information on Horcruxes that might be useful. Want to come with us?"

"Oh, uh, sure. What time?"

"How about around 8?"

"Yeah, 8 sounds good. I'll see you guys then."

~ID~

Harry was spending a relaxing break out by the Black Lake with Draco, Hermione, and Ron later that next day on what could possibly be one of the last warm afternoons of the year. Harry leaned back against the oak tree they were all under and laid his book in his lap so he could watch the water gently rippling in the soft, autumn breeze. The sun was just beginning to set, throwing everything the group could see into a soft, orange glow as several leaves continued to fall onto the ground.

As he watched the water, Harry could hear Draco and Ron playing chess beside him. Ron had always been exceptionally good at chess, having learned to play from all of his older brothers, but Draco proved to be a strong opponent despite rarely beating Ron at the game. The pair enjoyed playing and giving each other harmless banter back and forth. Hermione, thought extremely intelligent, was determined to be absolutely horrible at chess and, instead of playing, chose to watch the game and be a referee of sorts.

It was a quiet afternoon, the kind that Harry knew he would remember for years to come as he watched his three best friends in the dying light. It was then that he was briefly interrupted by the hoot of an owl that had landed next to him. He smiled as he saw Hedwig's white feathers. He gently stroked her as she stuck out her leg, a small scroll was attached to her.

"What'cha got for me, girl?" Harry asked as he untied the letter. He quickly dug around in his bag and found a muffin he had kept after breakfast, intending for it to be a small snack earlier that afternoon, but he had forgotten about it. he broke the muffin apart and laid it on the ground for Hedwig. She looked at it disdainfully before she began nibbling on it, surprising herself with how delicious it was.

Harry carefully unfurled the parchment and was excited to find that the letter was from Ginny. He had been hoping she would respond to him more quickly than she did, but he also knew that when Charlie comes to visit, she drops everything else around her. He was certainly one of her favorite brothers.

Hermione had looked up at the sound of the owl hooting and saw Harry opening the letter, "Who's it from?"

"Ginny," Harry replied, smiling.

Ron frowned, the tips of his ears going red, "Why are you owling my sister?"

"Because she's my friend and she's lonely at your house all by herself and your parents. Maybe you should send her a letter too. I bet she'd appreciate it."

Ron frowned and looked away while mumbling, "Well, I just didn't think of it. We've only been gone a few weeks."

"I'm just yanking your wand, Ron. She's been getting a ton of letters from everyone. She knows you're just getting settled into school and you'll owl her eventually. She's not upset. Plus, Charlie visited her the other day and probably spoiled her more rotten than she already is."

Draco snorted, "Yeah, like the princess of mayhem really needs to be spoiled more."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I mean, she's crafty but is she really the princess of mayhem?"

"Sorry," Draco corrected, "The queen of mayhem. What's wrong, Potter? Got yourself a crush?"

Harry frowned, "Of course not. Ginny's like my sister. She's Ron's sister. That would be super weird."

Draco shrugged, "Whatever you say. So what does the Weaslette want?"

"Hey! Don't call my sister that, Malfoy!"

"She calls herself that, dumbass," Draco said as he rolled his eyes and lightly punched Ron in the arm while laughing.

"What did Gin have to say?" Ron asked as he rubbed his shoulder.

Harry finished unrolling the letter as he read it aloud.

Harry,

I talked to Charlie like I said I would and let me tell you, he was a wealth of information. He swears he did this research in some books at Hogwarts but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's handled one of those dogs you wrote to me about. He said that it's a Cerberus. They're a specific kind of hellhound from Greece. Ancient wizards used to capture Cerberus' and train them to be guardians of temples, vaults, and valuables. Charlie said that he's come across the bones of Cerberus' during his tomb raiding in Egypt which shows that they were used even outside of Greece. The Cerberus often has three heads. He didn't have much more to say on the subject but I bet you could find more information at the library at school. Charlie said that the library there has books on everything. But knowing that Cerberus' were used to guard treasures, I wouldn't be surprised if Hermione's speculation is correct and this one is guarding something hiding under that trap door he was standing on.

The musical Charlie took me to was so exciting! The music was amazing and Charlie got me a cassette of it so that I can listen to it whenever I like. We had a good time out and went to our favorite restaurant. I've missed him. I hope he comes home more often now that he's settled into work in Egypt. Bill says he's going to visit me soon, too, but I miss you and the others at Hogwarts just as much. You guys are coming home for Christmas, right?

Write back soon. I hope you find out more information!

All my love,

Ginny

"You wrote to Ginny about that dog?" Hermione asked.

"Well, yeah. I write to Ginny about everything."

Draco started making kissing sounds from behind Hermione; Harry picked up a book and threw it at him. Draco managed to duck just in time and laughed.

"Why don't we head to the library tomorrow to do some research on Cerberus'. I had no idea that they were a real type of magical creature!" Hermione said excitedly. You could see the light in her eyes at the idea of doing research into a weird, specific area of magic.

"Gringotts uses both dragons and cerberus' to guard the older and larger vaults," Draco said casually.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at Draco for a moment before Ron piped up, "How do you know that?"

Draco frowned, "One of each guards the Malfoy family vaults. I figured everyone in the wizarding world knew that."

"That's horrible!" Hermione commented, the shock clear in her voice, "How can they use creatures like that? Forcing them underground like that!"

Draco frowned, "What do you mean? That's just—that's how it's always been done. The Potter vault has a dragon guarding it, doesn't it?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah but I've never seen it. Dad normally gets money from the family vault and when we went before Hogwarts we stopped at my personal vault because mum had left me money for school in it."

Hermione scowled, "It's just horrible."

Draco shrugged, "I'm not a fan but there isn't anything we can do about it right now. Maybe some day one of us can petition the Ministry to change it, but that's years from now. So do we want to do research tomorrow, then? I'm good to do it during our free period or after classes."

Everyone agreed to meet tomorrow to do more research.

~ID~

Over the next week the gang had done extensive research in cerberus'. They learned that, while they were a subsect of hellhound, they were not imbibed with the demonic energy that traditional hellhounds were and, therefore, they can be less dangerous and more dog-like. They also learned that Charlie had been correct in his statement that they were used to guard valuable objects. They also learned that cerberus' were extremely rare, especially in Brittan, and they were a class B non-tradable creature. How Hogwarts had obtained one was a huge blank in their research.

They also learned that each head works independent of the others and they will often fight over food if only one chunk is tossed to them and that music will lull them to sleep. Any music will do, but they traditionally prefer a slow waltz.

It was hard for the four of them to believe that they had already been at Hogwarts for two months yet so much had happened to them. They had carefully logged their research on cerberus' into a slot in Harry's trunk, unsure of how they would use that research in the future.

They were all excited for Halloween. They had heard of the awesome feast that they would have later that evening and were excitedly anticipating it throughout their classes that day. The Gryffindors queued up for Charms in the early afternoon buzzing with excitement over the prospect of finally having the opportunity to make objects fly. Flitwick had told them last class that they were all going to get to practice the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa, during class that day and everyone was discussing their techniques. The trio could hear a Hufflepuff boy, Zacharias Smith, bragging about how he had already accomplished the charm the other night while practicing for class. He had several of the other Hufflepuffs hanging off his every word as he gave them tips on accomplishing the spell work. As he spoke, Hermione audibly scoffed at his incorrect information and rolled her eyes.

Smith looked up at the sound and shot Hermione a nasty look, "Got a problem, Granger? Worried I'll be better than you at working this spell? I'm happy to give you some tips or maybe even a private lesson if you were interested," He added suggestively.

Ron mimed barfing into his school bag as Hermione retorted, "I wouldn't want any of those tips you're giving everyone else. You're going to accidently blow something up during class if you flick your wand too far to the left like you suggested."

Smith's face contorted in anger as he opened his mouth to fire back at Hermione when the door to the classroom flew open and Flitwick ushered them all inside.

"Come in, students, come in!" Flitwick squeaked as he ushered the students through the doorway and into their seats.

Class went as usual and, of course, Hermione managed to make her feather fly first. She managed to assist Ron and Harry in working the spell and both boys succeeded in flying their feathers around the room. Smith, on the other hand, sat sourly in his corner seat glaring at Hermione throughout the entire lesson.

As the bell tolled for the end of class, the trio gathered their items and began walking out of class. They happened to end up behind Smith who was talking loudly and occasionally glancing back behind him.

"No wonder no one besides the school weirdos likes her," Smith said loudly as he peered over his shoulder at Hermione, "She's a nightmare, honestly," he quickly and accurately mimicked Hermione jumping out of her seat to answer a question in class.

Without looking at Harry or Ron, Hermione promptly burst into tears and pushed passed Smith and dashed down the hall as Ron's face grew red with anger.

"Hey! Smith!" Ron shouted, his hands balling into fists, "What are you playing at you fucking ponce!"

Smith turned around mid-laugh to look at Ron, an air of arrogance on his face, "What's your problem, Weasley? Did I upset your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Ron mumbled, "What are you playing at making fun of her like that? Just because she called you out on your bull?"

Smith shrugged and turned on his heel, laughing, and headed down the corridor, away from Ron.

Harry, also seething but levelheaded, grabbed Ron by the robes to prevent him from chasing after Smith and landing himself in detention, "Calm down, Ron. Let's go find Hermione. I think she ran off this direction."

Ron nodded roughly and turned and walked towards where Hermione had run off to.

They found her about ten minutes later hiding in a girls lavatory, crying. Once they were sure it was clear of girls, they made their way into the bathroom to comfort her. Harry also quickly called Draco on his mirror, telling him where they were and what happened.

Draco showed up a few minutes later, bursting into the room guns blazing and anger in his stormy eyes, "Hermione, are you ok? Harry told me—"

Draco ended his sentence short when he caught sight of Ron holding a crying Hermione on the bathroom floor, Harry awkwardly standing near the sinks, unsure of what to do. Draco felt a tug at his heart, a wave of something that he couldn't quite place falling over him as he watched the scene. As Ron looked up at Draco, anger in his blue eyes, he nodded and knelt down next to the couple and simply held Hermione's hand while she cried.

They spent the remainder of the afternoon in the bathroom, missing the beginning of the Halloween feast entirely as the boys worked to get Hermione out of her funk. They had finally convinced her that, no, no one had over heard Smith and, even if they did, everyone knew he was a jerk and they wouldn't take what he said seriously, when they heard a noise outside of the bathroom. It was a loud, dragging and banging sound just outside of the door. None of them could quite place the sound, but each of their minds immediately jumped to the cerberus they had seen so very close to this bathroom.

They all sat quietly and waited. Everything was quiet. For a moment. Then the door to the bathroom opened slowly and a large, ugly, smelly thing walked through the door. It was so tall it almost had to stoop in the bathroom to make its way in and the stench was so overwhelming that they all covered their noses almost immediately upon its entry. Their eyes widened in fear as they caught sight of the large, heavy club that the thing was dragging behind it. Then, Hermione gasped.

"It's a mountain troll," she whispered to the boys, "We need to get out of here before it sees us!"

They stood stock still, unsure of how to handle the situation. Then, Harry nudged each of them and tried to sneak all of them out of the bathroom while the troll was busy looking at itself in the mirror. But they wouldn't get that lucky.

As they reached the door the troll caught sight of them in the mirror and turned, roaring in anger at being spied upon. It raised its large club and swung it down at them, catching the toilet stalls and tearing them off the wall with a loud bang!

Hermione screamed and jumped out of the way, pulling Draco, who's hand she was holding as they tried to make their way out a moment before, with her. They huddled under the sink closest to them as they watched Harry and Ron standing in front of the troll. Then, the troll turned toward Hermione and Draco.

"No!" Ron said as he looked around the room. He quickly picked up a chunk of toilet and threw it at the troll's head as he shouted, "Oy! Pea brain!"

Harry, eyes wide, looked at Draco and Hermione as he shouted, "Run!"

Hermione nodded and tried to make her way toward the door before the troll brought his club down again. Then Harry took a running leap and jumped onto the troll's back and, only having his wand in his hand, stuck it up the troll's nose. Draco, seeing the opportunity before him, grabbed hold of his wand and used it to create ropes that entangled themselves around the troll's legs, immobilizing it, just as Ron caused its club to levitate and then fall onto its head with a loud 'crack!'

The troll fell with a resounding thud onto the ground. It lay there for a few seconds before Hermione came out from under the sink, fear in her eyes as she looked at her friends standing around the unconscious troll.

"Is it—dead?" Hermione asked the boys.

"I don't think so," Draco said as he prodded it with his toe, "Just unconscious."

Hermione nodded as she looked at the troll, her eyes wide. Harry pulled his wand out of the troll's nose, muttering about troll bogies as he wiped it off on his robes. Just then they heard running footsteps coming toward the bathroom and they realized the din they had caused in their fight. Then McGonagall came running around the corner followed by Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell took one look at the scene before him and promptly fainted, falling back onto the floor next to the troll.

McGonagall looked at Quirrell and rolled her eyes, exasperated, before turning back to Harry and company, her lips thin and white, her eyes wide, "What on earth were you thinking of?" she asked, cold fury and fear in her voice as she pulled Harry in for a tight hug, "This in no way means you're getting off scott free, Mr. Potter."

"Please, professor, we didn't know there was a troll in the school. See, we missed the feast because I had been home sick and Harry, Ron, and Draco were trying to cheer me up. We ran in here when we saw the troll coming and it attacked us! Harry, Ron, and Draco were able to knock him out. Please, we didn't know," Hermione pleaded with McGonagall.

"You're lucky you weren't killed. In that case—I suppose we owe Gryffindor 5 points for each Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter and Ravenclaw 5 points for Mr. Malfoy. Now go, before I change my mind. The feast is being finished in your respective common rooms."

They hurried out of the bathroom and didn't speak until they were several floors above the bathroom housing the troll. As they reached their point of separation, they all nodded to one another and headed off to their common rooms, agreeing to meet tomorrow for breakfast.

End Notes:

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