The next day was even hotter than the day they finished their exams, and, for what felt like the first time in months, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco went outside instead of into the library. The sun blazed brightly overhead in the clear blue sky, barely a cloud in sight, and even before they'd left the castle the four of them had shed their outer-robes, leaving them in their relatively muggle uniforms. Nobody had classes, not only because it was the day after exams, but also because it was a Saturday, and most of the school was hanging out somewhere outside, seeking mercy from the sun and the heat in the shade of either the castle or one of the many trees scattered across Hogwarts' grounds. Some of the students, including the Weasley twins and their best friend, Lee Jordan, were messing around in the lake, either swimming or, in the case of the three previously mentioned gryffindors, tickling the tentacles of the Giant Squid, which had emerged from the depths of the lake to be in warmer water.
"Finally, no more homework!" Ron sighed happily and let himself collapse onto the grass underneath an oak tree that stood near the shore of the lake. He dropped his outer-robes onto the ground and stretched out on his back like one of the many cats that resided in Gryffindor Tower. "Y'know, you could look a bit happier, Harry, we still have a week until we find out how bad we did. We've got nothing to worry about."
Draco, who both agreed and disagreed with the redhead on that matter, just sighed and let himself sit down beside his best friend, leaning his back against the trunk of the tree. He looked up at Harry and saw, as he somewhat expected, him rubbing his scar with his now almost signature concerned scowl.
"I just want to know what it means !" He growled, throwing himself down next to Draco, exasperated and annoyed. "My scar keeps burning - it's happened before, but never this bad!" Once again he rubbed his scar and huffed, momentarily letting his green eyes fall shut behind his glasses.
"Go to Madam Pomfrey." Both Draco and Hermione, who had sat down on the grass with her back to the lake, said at the same time.
"I'm not ill." Harry said, suddenly sounding more exhausted than annoyed. "I think it's a warning… it means danger…"
Draco frowned slightly, knowing his best friend was likely right. He remembered in the forest, when the cloaked figure that ended up being Voldemort had turned to face them, how Harry had screamed out and clutched at his forehead in pain. If he said it was a warning for danger, Draco believed him, Ron and Hermione however, did not. Maybe it was because they hadn't seen Voldemort, or how Harry reacted to him, or maybe it was just because they were in denial of it. Either way, both of them only seemed to care about the fact that classes and exams were over.
"Relax, Harry." Ron said, glancing briefly over at the lake when George screamed as one of the Giant Squid's tentacles hit him and knocked him backwards into the water, causing Fred and Lee to burst out laughing. "Hermione's right, the stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's here. Besides, we still don't have any proof that Snape even knows how to get past Fluffy. He almost ripped his leg off once, he won't try to get past him again quite so quick. And Neville'll be playing Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."
Draco snorted at the redhead's statement, though he agreed. He wondered if Hagrid had been a Hufflepuff while in school, he certainly had the loyalty trait. Then again, he wasn't exactly incredibly good at keeping secrets, he had already told them way more about everything that was going on than he was supposed to, and most of the time he hadn't even intended to.
Harry looked slightly uncertain, like Draco felt, though he nodded slightly. His agreement with Ron, however, didn't seem to last very long, and just a moment later he spoke; "It's just, I feel like I forgot to do something, something important. I don't really know how to describe it, it's almost like right before I fell asleep I thought of something I needed to do, but when I woke up all I could remember was that there was something , and I just can't figure out what it is."
Ron pushed himself up slightly, propping his elbows up behind him as he looked over at the Boy-Who-Lived with a confused glint in his eyes. His eyebrows were scrunched together and the left corner of his lips tugged downwards in a half-frown.
Draco shrugged slightly, he sort of understood what Harry meant. He had felt the same way for most of the past few months, sometimes he thought it had to do with school, other times he thought it had to do with the Philosopher's Stone.
"It's just the exams. Last night I woke up and got through half of my Transfiguration notes before I remembered that we're already done with everything." Hermione was obviously trying to sound reassuring, whether it was to convince herself or Harry was unclear, but either way he didn't look convinced.
None of them said anything for a while after that. Ron let himself lay back down in the grass, closing his eyes and crossing his arms behind his head. Hermione pulled a thick, leatherbound book out of her bag that she had brought out with her for whatever reason and flipped it open, immediately getting invested in it. Harry stared up at the sky, the distant look that always crossed his face when he was concentrating or thinking clouding his eyes. Draco watched the Weasley twins and Lee, somewhat distractedly, as they continued to get shoved by the Giant Squid, now all soaked in lake water.
Now that Harry had mentioned the feeling, it seemed to suddenly have returned to the blond, enveloping him. There was something he was missing, something that should be obvious, something he should see without trying to, but couldn't.
Suddenly, before Draco could even attempt to figure out what it was he was missing from the situation, Harry sprang to his feet, the distant look dissipating from his face. "Where are you going?" Ron asked, cracking his eyes open to look up at his best friend, seeming to have just been pulled out of a half-asleep daze.
"I just realized something," Harry said slowly, growing pale as if he was suddenly terrified. Draco sat up straighter, he had never seen his raven-haired best friend look so scared, even in the Forbidden Forest. Something was wrong, really wrong. "We need to go to Hagrid's, right now." Without another word he turned and walked off in the direction of the gamekeeper's cabin on the edge of the forest.
Draco and Hermione, who had snapped her book shut the second Harry had stood up, both pushed themselves to their feet and ran after him, Ron following a few paces behind them. "Why?" The latter of the two gasped when she caught up to Harry, looking over at him with confusion and concern evident in her gaze.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd," Harry said instead of answering, somehow speeding up his pace a bit more. "That what Hagrid wants more than anything is to have a dragon and then, out of nowhere, a stranger with an egg just so happens to show up? How many people just walk around with Dragon Eggs in their pockets, even though it's against the law? Right lucky that he found Hagrid. Why didn't I see it before?"
Draco stared at him in shock, his mind putting together the pieces that Harry had, and it made sense. It was so obvious that he felt like slapping himself for not having noticed sooner. Seriously, who would've traded a dragon egg over a simple game of cards, especially when doing so could get them thrown into Azkaban, if they didn't have some bigger plan?
"What are you trying to say?" Ron asked and, not for the first time, Draco questioned how he was so good at chess and strategy and, in all honesty, quite often schoolwork, but was still oblivious about simple things that were being explained to him, or were just plain obvious. He expected Harry to respond and explain to his best friend what he meant, since he usually did so when he was the only person in their group confused, but he kept silent as he marched determinedly towards Hagrid's hut.
When they arrived there a few moments later they found Hagrid sitting in an armchair in front of his hut, for once having shed his thick coat and having rolled his sleeves and pant legs up to his knees and elbows. He had two huge bowls on the ground beside him, one filled with peapods and the other partially filled with single peas. As they approached him, he picked up a pod from the first bowl and broke it open, spilling a few peas into the second one. It took him a few seconds to realize they were even there, too caught up in what he was doing, but when finally did notice them a wide grin spread across his face.
"Hullo," Hagrid greeted them cheerfully, momentarily abandoning his peas to speak with them. "All done with studyin' and yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"
The offer was tempting, admittedly, with how hot it was, and it would certainly make it so they could easily start a conversation to lead up to asking Hagrid about the person who had given him Norbert's egg. Ron seemingly agreed, though likely only for the first reason seeing as he was still rather clueless as to what was going on, and grinned. "Yes, please."
Before Draco could say he too agreed, however, Harry spoke, stepping a bit closer to Hagrid with an odd look on his face. Usually he could read what his best friend was feeling rather easily on his expression, at least when he wasn't too upset, his expression closed off and became blank when he was, but now he didn't have a clue what he felt. It wasn't necessarily because Harry was hiding his emotions, no, he looked expressionless and distant when he did that, he simply had an expression on his face that the blond had never seen before.
"No, no time, Hargid, I have to ask you something. Do you still remember the night that you won Norbert? What did the stranger you played cards with look like?" Harry's words tumbled out like they were forcing their way out of his mouth, as if he might not be able to say them if he waited a second longer.
"Wow," Draco muttered, trying not to grin in slight amusement. "You don't even try to stall, do you?" Harry ignored him, simply looking at Hagrid expectantly instead.
"Dunno," Hagrid said slowly, a confused glint in his dark eyes as he looked at the four of them, likely unsure of the reason behind Harry's question. "He wouldn' take his cloak off."
Ron, who finally seemed to understand what Harry had been trying to say before, looked at the other three gryffindors as they all exchanged stunned glances. That was suspicious, sure it'd make sense for someone to want to keep their identity a secret if they were doing something illegal, but unless showing their face would reveal who they were, it didn't make sense to hide it. Hagrid looked up at the three of them, completely clueless to the thoughts running through their minds and raised his eyebrows.
"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head -that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."
Draco stared at the Gamekeeper in shock as Harry sank down to the ground beside the bowl of singular peas. How could Hagrid think that wasn't odd, or suspicious? Almost anyone would have thought so and would have not trusted the stranger. Why didn't he? Then again, he had been at least somewhat drunk by then, but still, it seemed sort of ridiculous to not be suspicious.
"What did you talk about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" Harry asked a short moment later, looking up at Hagrid with a nervous look on his face that he didn't even attempt to hide.
"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, eyebrows scrunching up in confusion as he attempted to recollect what had transpired that night, lips tugging down at the corners. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks... Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy…"
Draco met Harry's gaze for a moment, knowing they were both thinking the same thing. "And did he… did he seem interested in Fluffy?" The latter's voice was forcefully calm, his eyes filled with concentration and concern.
"Well - yeah - how many three headed dogs d'yeh meet, even aroun' Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep -'' Hagrid suddenly broke off with a look of dawning horror on his face.
"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" He blurted out, obviously having realized what he said. Still, it was more that he shouldn't have told the stranger that piece of information. "Forget I said it! Hey - where're yeh goin'?"
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco ran off without a word, not even to each other. They all knew what Hagrid had said meant, and it was just proof that their fears weren't for nothing. Someone besides Dumbledore and Hagrid knew how to get past Fluffy, and Draco was almost certain it wasn't someone with good intentions.
None of them stopped running until they were inside the castle, in the entrance hall which seemed oddly dark and cold in comparison to outside, and when they did it took them a moment to catch their breath. They all leaned against the wall, like they had so many months ago - had it really been only months ago? It felt as if it were years ago - after running from Filch, just before they had gotten themselves into this whole mystery with the Stone.
"We need to find Dumbledore," Harry said then, letting out a slight heaving breath as he moved away from the wall to face them. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and under that cloak was either Snape or Voldemort - it must have been awfully easy once he got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore will believe us. Firenze might help us if Bane doesn't stop him. Where even is Dumbledore's office?"
He looked around as if signs had suddenly appeared in the school to tell them where to go, which admittedly would have been nice, especially when they first arrived at school and didn't have a clue where anything was. It certainly would be nice to have a map, or maybe even a spell that could tell them where to go, but of course, the teachers didn't find it necessary for them to own such a thing, or learn such a spell, if it existed. They hadn't even seen half of the school yet, and they most certainly had never been to the Headmaster's office. How in Merlin's name were they supposed to find it?
"Then we'll just have to -" Harry was suddenly interrupted by a strict, familiar voice coming from just a little way down the corridor, causing all four of them to freeze in place.
"What are you four doing in here?"
Professor McGonagall was walking towards them at a swift pace, a large stack of books piled in her arms, her dark green robes swirling around her ankles as she made her way towards the four of them. Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Draco all looked at each other, overwhelmed by a brief sense of panic before Hermione faced their Head of House.
"We want to speak with Professor Dumbledore." Hermione's voice was surprisingly calm and composed, not a hint of panic evident in anything about her in that moment. The three boys glanced at each other again, impressed once again by the one girl in their friend group's ability to speak and lie, or rather avoid the truth, to teachers.
"Speak with Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated slowly, as if there was something odd about that request, which in her eyes there likely was. Four first year students, one of them the famous Boy Who Lived, and another the son of a feared pureblood family who were known past followers of Voldemort, wanted to speak with the headmaster of Hogwarts and all looked scared and likely very frazzled and disheveled. "Why?"
Harry visibly gulped beside Draco, and out of the corner of his eyes glanced at him, unsure of what to say. How were they supposed to explain the reason they needed to speak to the Headmaster after exams, on a Saturday no less, without telling her about the stone?
"It's sort of a secret." Draco shot his best friend a visibly shocked look. Seriously, that was what he chose to say? She was already suspicious enough of them, saying something like that would only make things worse. The blond resisted the urge to hit Harry upside the head and instead simply looked back at their transfiguration teacher who looked rather angry, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coolly, glaring down at them from behind her glasses which were perched on the bridge of her nose. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and immediately flew off to London."
"He left?" Harry demanded, eyes wide with terror and desperation, before any of the other young gryffindors could say anything. "Just now?" He glanced back at his friends, whose expressions all mirrored his. If Dumbledore wasn't here… anything could happen.
"Professor Dumbledore is a very important wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time -" Professor McGonagall said, though this in no way reassured them, in fact it just made Draco even more worried. He highly doubted that today of all days, the day when practically everyone in Hogwarts, including the teachers, were more or less relaxed, the Ministry would ask for Dumbledore's assistance on anything, it seemed more likely that it was a fake of some sort, that it was actually a ploy to get him out of the castle so whoever was working with Voldemort - most likely Severus Snape, but he refused to think about his identity, refused to think about the fact that his godfather was not who he thought he was - could get the stone without interference.
"But it's important." Harry's persistent tone didn't seem to worry Professor McGonagall, in fact she seemed rather unimpressed, as if she thought he were attempting to pull a prank on her, which seemed much more like something the Weasley twins would do than them.
"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?" Even her tone sounded unimpressed and she looked down at them with one skeptic eyebrow raised.
"Look," Harry said, his tone suddenly shifting in a subtle way that caused Draco to look over at him. He was going to tell her, Harry was going to tell her why they needed to speak with Dumbledore, no matter how bad that could end up for them. "Professor, it's about the Philosopher's Stone -"
Suddenly, as if she had been hit by a spell, every sign that their Head of house wasn't interested or concerned in what they were saying vanished. The books she was holding slipped from her hands to the floor with a loud thud that echoed through the Entrance Hall and her eyes grew wide as saucers as she stared at them, mouth opened slightly. "How do you know -" She sputtered, at an obvious lack of ability to speak.
"Professor, I think - I know - that Sn..., that someone is going to try to steal the stone. I need to speak with Professor Dumbledore."
While Harry spoke Professor McGonagall seemed to have regained some of her composure and was now looking at him with a mix of shock and suspicion. Her eyes were narrowed behind her glasses, her mouth pressed into a thin line, and her hands clenched into fists as if to stop them from doing something, though whether it was to prevent them from trembling or simply doing something else entirely was unclear.
"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally, as if making up her mind. "I don't know how you know about the Stone, but let me reassure you, nobody is capable of stealing it, it is heavily protected."
Draco stepped forward suddenly, finding his voice. "But, Professor, we -"
She did not allow him to finish his protest however, and instead fixed him with an angry and exasperated glare. "Malfoy, I know what I am talking about." Professor McGonagall knelt down and began to gather her fallen books as she spoke, quickly straightening again once she had picked up all her books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sun." With that said she turned around and walked away stiffly, leaving the four first year gryffindors standing there in shock and suddenly even more concern.
"It's happening tonight," Harry said the second Professor McGonagall was out of sight, turning to face the other three. "Tonight Snape's going to go through that trapdoor. He's found out everything he needs to know and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that letter. I bet the Ministry of Magic will have quite a shock when Dumbledore shows up."
Hermione, who was now standing beside Draco, across from Ron and Harry, nodded slightly, though there was a slightly confused expression on her face. "But what can we -" She broke off abruptly, looking at something behind the other two with wide eyes.
Draco followed her gaze, somewhat hesitantly, and his own eyes widened. Merde, he thought when he saw the figure standing just a few feet behind Harry and Ron, having somehow snuck up on them without them realizing. We're screwed.
"A wonderful afternoon" Severus Snape said softly in a slight drawl, looking down at them as Harry and Ron spun around to face the Potions Master.
All four of them stared at him, fear and guilt likely evident on all their faces. Draco gulped slightly and glanced at each of his friends in turn.
"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this." An odd, forced smile stretched its way across his lips and for a moment Draco flashed back to his childhood when he saw his godfather smile in that same way when his father would mention something that the blond now realized was not good in any way. What did him smiling like that, at them no less, mean?
"We were-" Harry broke off, a clueless look on his face as he failed to figure out what to say to get them out of trouble.
"Better be a bit more careful," Snape said as if he hadn't said anything, continuing to look at them with that odd look on his face. "With the way you're hanging around here, someone might think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose more points, can it?"
Harry turned red and glanced back at Draco and Hermione, then over at Ron, the four of them swiftly coming to agreement. If they wanted to do or discuss anything without the chance of getting caught or in trouble with anyone, they had to go outside and act like they were enjoying the sun like everyone else as Professor McGonagall suggested.
"I'm warning you, Potter, one more night wandering and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Have a good rest of the day." Snape called after them just as they were about to run through the doors outside and they all looked at him to see the professor walking off in the direction of the teachers' lounge.
For a short moment they all just stood there as he walked away, his robes swishing out behind him like a cape, then they all left the castle again.
Just a few steps down from the doors leading back into the Entrance Hall, Harry turned around to face them again, a determined glint in his eyes, visible even with the sun reflecting off of his glasses lenses. "I know what we need to do," He whispered to them; his voice also had a determined edge to it. "One of us has to keep an eye on Snape - wait in front of the teachers' lounge and follow him when he leaves it. You'd best do it, Hermione."
"Why me?" Said brunette asked, looking at Harry in confusion as she tilted her head to the side, an eyebrow raised.
"Well, either you or Draco." Ron said, as if the reason was obvious just by saying that. "You could both pretend to be waiting for one of the professors, like Flitwick for example, Hermione's been freaking out about… what was it, question 14 b? 'Oh, Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got the wrong answer on-' " Before the redhead could finish speaking Hermione shoved him lightly, causing him to stumble down a step further than the rest of them, as she glared at him in a bit of amusement.
"Oh, stop it." She snapped but Ron just grinned back, obviously amused and unfazed by being pushed down the steps slightly. "Now, am I going to keep watch, or Draco?" All three boys glanced at each other and simultaneously shrugged, not sure how to answer.
"I'd be fine with either option, really. Both of us going would be too suspicious, so that's out of the question." Draco said and the others seemed to agree, judging by their nods.
"Hermione's a bit more open about her excessive studying than you are, so she's probably the best bet if we want to be completely inconspicuous." Harry said, pausing for the others to agree before continuing. "Okay, so, Draco, Ron, and I should probably wait at the entrance to the third floor corridor in case he shows up there. C'mon, the quicker we go, the better."
Neither side of their plan ended up working however. Just as Harry, Ron, and Draco made it to the door that led to the third floor corridor where Fluffy was, they were intercepted once again by Professor McGonagall. She seemed to know exactly what they were doing there and sent them away again with the threat of taking fifty points from each of them if they came even close to that corridor again. Hermione, it seemed, had the same amount of luck as them, since just after they arrived in the Gryffindor common room she did as well with the news that she too had been caught by Snape and had to lie to get out of it.
"Well, that's it then," Harry said and collapsed into one of the armchairs near the fireplace. He was paler than Draco had ever seen him before and his eyes were wide and glittering with fear and a few tiny unshed tears. Ron, Hermione, and Draco all stared at him, not sure what to say.
"Tonight I'm going out and I'm going to try to get to the stone first," He said suddenly and looked right up at them, determination now glittering in his green eyes.
"You're mad!" Ron exclaimed after a second of shocked silence, his blue eyes wide.
"You can't do that! After what McGonagall and Snape said? They'll expel you!" Hermione practically yelled, staring at Harry with a similar expression to Ron's on her face.
Draco didn't say anything in response to Harry's words, however. He knew his raven-haired best friend wouldn't change his mind, he had made that much very clear a few months prior when they were going to see Hagrid about the stone. Harry would do anything to protect others, even risk his own life, and nothing anyone ever says or does will change that, it's just how he was.
"SO WHAT?" Harry all but screamed, shooting to his feet again. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets a hold of the stone, then Voldemort comes back! Haven't you heard what it was like last time he tried to rise to power? There'll be no more Hogwarts for us to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for dark magic! Losing points won't matter anymore, don't you get that? Do you think he'll leave your families alone if Gryffindor wins the House Cup? If I get caught before I get to the stone, it's over, then I have to go back to the Dursleys and wait until Voldemort finds me there. That just means that I'll die a little bit later than I would otherwise, because I'm never going to turn to the dark side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you guys say will stop me. Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"
All three of them stared at him for a few seconds while he glared angrily at them, then, quietly, Hermione murmured: "You're right, Harry."
The anger faded slightly out of his eyes, though only slightly, his fists unclenching as he took a deep breath. "I'm going to take the invisibility cloak, lucky I got it back…"
Ron stepped a bit closer to him then, a sudden determination shining in his blue eyes. "But will all four of us fit under it?"
Harry, who had been about to walk towards the boys' dorm as if he was planning on leaving right then and there to go through the Trapdoor, despite it being only late morning, froze and stared at Ron in shock and confusion. "All… all four?"
The redhead scoffed slightly, shaking his head as he stepped closer to Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, stop, do you really think we're going to let you go alone?"
Draco then too stepped a bit closer, though he didn't place his hand on his shoulder as Ron had. "Yeah, I know I said before that it was dangerous, which it bloody well is, and acted like I wouldn't go with you if you went down there. Sure, we could all die, but together we have a much higher chance of surviving than you do on your own. We're in this together, okay? We all knew what we signed up for when we became friends with the Boy Who Lived." Draco grinned slightly and Harry looked at each of them in turn, shocked.
"Of course we are," Hermione said energetically, now joining the other two in a sort of crowd right around Harry. "How do you think you're going to get to the stone without us? I'd better go look through my books, there might be something useful in there…"
Draco resisted the urge to snort in amusement at her typical antics, always thinking she needed to study for everything, even an adventure, or whatever this could be called.
"But if we get caught, you'll be expelled." Harry retorted and all three of the other first year gryffindors in front of him sighed softly in unison, exasperated.
"I'd like to see them try," Hermione said with a determined look overtaking her face. "Flitwick told me that I got a hundred and twelve percent on the Charms exam. With that grade they're not going to expel me."
All day the four of them wandered around the school and outside with no real plan of what they were doing. At some point they found themselves in the library, which was completely deserted of all students, and even though they had grown to sort of hate being in there they ended up spending most of the afternoon surrounded by shelves upon shelves of leather bound books, researching all sorts of wards and defensive charms and things that could potentially have been used to protect the stone. Still, when they left the library later none of them felt as if any of their research would help them much.
All four of them didn't speak a word during dinner, too afraid a teacher or another student would hear what they were talking about. They were silent all the way up to the common room as well, in fact none of them spoke until the common room was at least half empty. Hermione and Draco had both once again begun looking through any sorts of wards that might have been used, and how to break them or defend themselves from them and other things. Harry and Ron were mostly silent, Ron twirling a quill repeatedly in his hand and Harry just staring somewhat blankly into the empty fireplace, where no fire had blazed for over two months by that point.
"Better get the cloak," Ron murmured as the Common Room finally, at about 11 at night, emptied out when a yawning Lee Jordan wandered up the stairs toward the boys' dormitories. Draco looked up from the book he was reading through just as Harry, who it seemed had been waiting to be told to do so, stood up and practically ran after Lee towards their dorm room.
Not a minute later Harry came running back downstairs with his invisibility cloak folded up in his arms, gripping a carved wooden flute that Draco vaguely recognized in his hand. He and Hermione both put their books down and stood up along with Ron, who placed the quill he was fiddling with down beside him on the armchair. "We'd best put the cloak on in here to make sure we all fit under it - if Filch sees one of our feet wandering around on its own -" Harry was abruptly cut off mid sentence by a voice behind them, however, and all four of them turned to face the speaker, looking like deer caught in headlights.
"What are you doing?" Neville demanded as he stood up from the armchair across the Common Room he had been sitting in, hidden from sight. He was holding Trevor in one hand, gripping him tightly as if scared he would attempt to escape as he had already done many times over the course of the school year.
"Nothing, Neville, nothing." Harry spoke much too quickly for it to be believable and even though he hid the cloak and flute behind his back as fast as he could, it was impossible that Neville hadn't at least glimpsed them.
Their classmate stared at them for a few seconds, as if attempting to discover what exactly they were planning. Then his eyes widened in horror; he had realized what they were going to do. A stab of fear went through Draco then. What if he ran off and told a teacher? What if he decided to follow them if they managed to get past him?
"You're going out again." He said and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco glanced briefly at each other before looking back at him, hoping he wouldn't notice that for a moment they all looked even guiltier.
"No, no, no," Hermione said quickly, obviously trying to convince him that wasn't true but not doing the best job at it. "No, we're not. Why don't you go up to bed, Neville?"
Draco resisted the strong urge he had to slap his hand into his forehead and groan. They were lucky they hadn't been caught by a prefect, at least, because Hermione really was a terrible liar when it came to stuff like this. Sure, she may be able to bend the truth a bit with teachers, but anyone else? Not really.
"You can't go out." Neville sounded abnormally determined as he said it and he stepped a bit closer to them. "You'll get caught again and Gryffindor will lose even more points."
Harry too stepped forward towards Neville, shaking his head slightly. "You don't understand, this is important."
Neville shook his head vigorously and then quickly stepped in front of the portrait hole which was just to his left. "I won't let you go! I - I'll fight you!"
In that moment Ron decided to make himself a part of the conversation and walked quickly towards Neville, stopping just a few paces in front of him. "Neville," He yelled, and Draco glanced around for a second to make sure there really was nobody else left in the Common Room or coming down the stairs to see what the commotion was all about. "Get out of the way and don't be an idiot -"
"Don't call me an idiot!" Neville snapped back, glaring at them, not moving an inch from his place in front of the only exit in the Common Room. "I don't want you guys to break any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"
Draco had to admit, he had never seen Neville this bold, not even that time he stood up to the slytherins at the quidditch match. Then, he hadn't done anything until they had come, until Ron had done something. Now, now he was standing up to them, for no reason other than him wanting to keep their house out of trouble. Had he really changed so much in the past few months, year, or was this just a sudden burst of courage? Either way, Draco felt oddly proud of his housemate, despite the circumstances.
"Yeah, but not to us," Ron said in exasperation, rolling his eyes slightly as he took another small step forward. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."
Those words seemed to give the brunet more confidence and he let Trevor fall to the ground, for once not caring that his pet was running away and likely wouldn't be found for a long while. He balled his hands to fists and raised them up in front of himself, face set into a determined expression. "Go on, try and hit me! I'm ready!"
Draco stared at him, unsure what to do as Harry turned to face him and Hermione. He didn't want to hurt Neville, anything but, still, they needed to get past him.
"Do something!" He hissed, though it was unclear whether Harry was addressing Draco or Hermione, or both. His eyes reflected what Draco felt and his gaze flicked between the two of them, desperation hidden in their depths.
Hermione stared at him for a few seconds then stepped forward when Draco didn't do anything, pulling her wand from her pocket and holding it in a slightly trembling hand at her side. "Neville," she said, her voice much firmer than her grip and more confident than the look in her eyes. "I'm really, really sorry about this."
As the brunette raised her wand and pointed it directly at their housemate, their friend , she spoke a spell softly, almost under her breath, but filled with confidence nonetheless. "Petrificus Totalus!"
Neville's arms snapped to his sides, his legs sprang together, and his mouth closed, lips pressed tightly together. For a second he simply stayed in place, then he began to sway, completely frozen as if time had stopped for him. He fell forwards, stiff as a board, and onto his face.
For a moment Draco feared Neville had been hurt by the fall, but when Hermione stumbled towards the brunet on the floor to roll him onto his back there was no injury visible on him. His eyes, however, shimmered with horror and desperation as he looked back up at them, gaze flicking between the four standing above him.
"What did you do to him?" Harry whispered, green eyes wide and a bit scared, as if he was freaked out by Hermione, which was understandable given what she had done to their dorm mate.
"That's a full body-bind curse," Draco explained without really thinking about it, having recognized both the spell and the effects it had. Hermione nodded but didn't look away from Neville, guilt shining in her dark eyes along with a tiny unshed tear.
"Oh, Neville, I really am so sorry," she murmured and then stood up, blinking the unshed tears out of her eyes and slipping her wand back into her pocket.
"We had to do it, Neville, no time to explain it now," Harry said with a frown, guilt shining in his eyes as he unfolded the invisibility cloak.
"You'll understand it later, Neville." Ron stepped over Neville, a frown pulling the corners of his lips downwards as he grabbed a corner of the cloak and flung it over himself, vanishing mostly from view.
"Yeah, you might even thank us. Probably not, but… at least you hopefully won't hate us. I'm sorry, Neville." Draco stared down at his dormmate for a moment, frowning, and then got under the cloak as well, allowing himself to disappear from everyone but those under the cloak's sight.
The four of them, walking rather close to each other due to the invisibility cloak, pushed the Fat Lady's portrait out and stepped through the portrait hole, stumbling into the corridor beyond it and almost tripping over the bottom of the cloak.
"Merlin, walking under this thing is hard with so many of us. I wish I knew how to cast an invisibility charm or something, then we wouldn't have to do this." Draco muttered under his breath and Hermione glanced over at him, looking as if she agreed with him.
"Yeah, but that's an OWL level spell, not first year." She whispered back and though Draco wanted to ask her how she could possibly know that, he kept his mouth shut. Everything they said, each of their footsteps, and rustles of their robes seemed to echo off the stone walls of the corridor, bouncing back at them ten times their original volume. The shadows on the ground and walls were stretched and eerie, like they weren't really real, and almost every time they turned a corner they froze, thinking Filch or someone else was standing in front of them when it was really just a statue.
They all froze completely once when they reached the first set of stairs they had to descend, however. Mrs. Norris was sitting on the second to last stair, tail flicking back and forth along the carpet as if she were impatiently waiting for a student to wander by so she could get them in trouble. Great, just great.
For a moment they all stood there, looking down at the cat apprehensively, scared she might be able to see them. Slowly they all began to walk down the stairs, pausing a few steps in front of Mrs. Norris once again, hoping she wouldn't hear them. "Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear and Harry sent him a small glare before shaking his head. The redhead pouted slightly but sighed and didn't argue, obviously knowing there was no point in it.
The four of them all carefully inched to the side before descending the last few steps, trying to stay as far away from the cat as possible. Mrs. Norris's bright yellow eyes swivelled towards them and they froze for a second, but began walking again when she didn't move any more than that and flicking her tail back and forth again.
They didn't run into anyone else until they reached the staircase leading down to the third floor. Once again they all froze in place, this time in even more fear than before. Peeves was hopping around a few inches in the air, pulling the carpet that went down the middle of the staircase up at the corners and loosening it in a way that would make a lot of people trip the next day when they went up or down it.
"Who's there?" He asked suddenly, stopping what he was doing as they hesitantly went down a few steps. His pitch black eyes narrowed and glinted in the moonlight shining in through one of the windows in the corridor behind them. "I know you're there, even if I can't see you. Who are you, pesky students or ghosts?" He floated a bit closer to them and Draco unconsciously held his breath, suddenly feeling rather scared of him even sensing they were there.
"Should call for Filch, yes, I should when something invisible is sneaking around here."
Harry's eyes suddenly brightened in the way they always did when he got an idea and a small smirk formed on his face. "Peeves," he said in a raspy whisper that was surprisingly convincing. "The Bloody Baron has his reasons for being invisible."
Peeves almost fell out of the air at that, terror evident all over his face. He fell down a few feet and backed up, managing to keep himself from actually hitting the ground. "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, sir." The poltergeist gasped out, still terrified but trying to hide it. "My mistake, completely my mistake - I didn't see you - of course not, you're invisible - Forgive old Peevsie this little joke, Sir."
Harry paused a moment before speaking again in the same raspy whisper. "I have business here, Peeves. Stay away from here tonight."
Peeves nodded frantically and floated a bit higher. "I will, Sir, I certainly will do that." He nodded again as he spoke, floating even further away. "Hope your business goes well, Mr. Baron, I won't bother you." With that he flew off, disappearing from sight not even a second later.
"Genius, Harry!" Ron whispered with a grin, blue eyes wide in amazement.
Draco repressed the urge to laugh at the fact that that actually worked. Despite his efforts not to, however, a snort of amusement escaped him and he covered his mouth with his hand, just in case Peeves was still close enough to hear them. He doubted the Bloody Baron laughed much given his reputation, so if the Poltergeist heard a giggle it might blow their cover.
For a moment they all just stood there, trying not to laugh at what just happened. Their laughter didn't last long however, because they remembered why they were outside of Gryffindor Tower in the middle of the night in the first place. The four of them all finished descending the stairs and walking through the corridor towards the door that led into the corridor that Fluffy resided in, where they all stopped. The door was open a crack, proof that they had not only been right, but were also a bit late, too late maybe.
"That's reassuring," Harry muttered under his breath. "Snape's already past Fluffy."
For a moment they were all silent. Each of them knew what that could mean, they could have taken too long to get there, Snape could already have gotten past the other protections and gotten hold of the Philosopher's Stone.
"If you want to go back now, I won't hold it against you," Harry said as he turned to face them and Draco looked at him in shock. "You can take the cloak, I don't need it anymore." He didn't look at any of them as he said that, green eyes trained on the stone floor as if he really did expect them to say they would abandon him now.
"Don't be stupid," Ron said with determination in his gaze.
"We're coming with you," Hermione added, equally as determined and Harry glanced between them, obviously still nervous.
"I told you, we're in this together, Harry. No matter what." Draco said and said boy looked up at him and his other two best friends in shock, staring at them for a few seconds before turning around pushing the door open.
The hinges creaked as the door swung completely open, the sound deafening in the silence of the middle of the night. An even louder, deep growl echoed from within the corridor beyond and the four young gryffindors glanced at each other briefly, nervous, before they all in sync took a step into the corridor they were not supposed to enter "unless they wanted to die a most painful death", as Professor Dumbledore kindly put it on their first night at Hogwarts.
Fluffy, the three headed dog that was not named logically at all for an animal that towered over an average human like a building and was being used as a guard dog for one of the most important magical items in existence, was facing the four of them, nose quivering as if it were sniffing the air. The only reason Draco didn't feel like running in that moment was the fact the dog was still half asleep and that they knew how to make it fall asleep instantly, and the fact that he wouldn't leave his friends, not now, certainly made him more confident.
"What's lying there between his feet?" Hermione whispered to the three of them then, brown eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the details of the golden thing glinting in the moonlight at the feet of the three-headed dog.
"Looks like a harp," Ron said, eyes also narrowed but seemingly not having quite as much trouble seeing in the dark as Hermione. "Snape must have left it there."
Harry let out a small sigh and pulled the wooden flute out of his pocket, holding it awkwardly in his hands like he wasn't quite sure what to do with it. "He probably wakes up as soon as you stop playing," he murmured and raised the flute towards his lips. "Well, here goes…"
Just before the raven-haired boy could begin to even attempt to play the instrument, Draco spoke. "Do you even know how to play?" He hissed and Harry glared over at him, lowering the flute again. Just by the way he glared at the blond made it obvious that he couldn't, but just didn't want to admit it.
"Do you?" Harry retorted with a raised eyebrow. For a second Draco didn't respond at all, then he sighed softly and looked down briefly.
"No…" He admitted quietly and Harry looked for a moment as if he were trying not to grin before he raised the flute to his lips again, beginning to play a very out of tune melody that made the part of Draco that had taken piano lessons his entire childhood cringe away in horror. How could Fluffy fall asleep to that? It was horrible!
Still, the dog didn't seem to care much, because his eyes immediately began to droop shut. Harry didn't stop playing for even a single second, which was both impressive and sort of odd, and gradually Fluffy stopped growling. He swayed slightly in place for a few moments, eyes fluttering shut just before he collapsed to his knees and then to the floor with a loud thud. Soft snores replaced the growls and had Fluffy been a tenth of his size, he might have looked sort of adorable.
"Keep playing," Ron said, as if Harry wasn't aware that he should do so, and the four of them slipped the cloak off themselves, letting it fall to the floor at their feet. They all, as quietly as possible, krept towards the huge three-headed dog's paws which were resting on top of a wooden trapdoor. The out of tune music gave the whole situation an eerie, dreamlike feel and Draco subconsciously wondered if he could fly if he just focused hard enough. Everything felt a bit like a dream, like he would wake up any moment to find himself back in the gryffindor dorms, or maybe in his bedroom at Malfoy Manor the day before school started, but he knew it wasn't any such thing. This was real, somehow.
Fluffy's hot, gross smelling breath blew over them and Draco shuddered slightly, wanting to step away but knowing the only way they would get through the trapdoor was, well, opening it and going through it.
"I think we could swing the door open," Ron said thoughtfully as he looked over the leg of the dog, frowning slightly. "Do you want to go first, Hermione?" He phrased it like he was simply asking it out of courtesy or politeness, but it was obvious it was more because he didn't want to go first himself.
"No, I do not!" Hermione snapped, glaring over at him, a bit of fear glinting in her eyes. Draco assumed they all harbored at least some of that fear, none of them really knew what they were about to, quite literally, drop themselves into, afterall.
"All right." Ron gulped and hesitated for a second before carefully climbing over Fluffy's leg, cringing every time the dog so much as shifted an inch and freezing for a good three seconds. He slid off the other side of the leg and knelt down over the square door, grabbing hold of the brass ring attached to the wood and yanking it upwards. A small yelp escaped him as it flew open with ease, not even creaking, and almost left him sprawled on the floor from the excess energy he had put into pulling the trapdoor open.
"What do you see?" Hermione called over to him and he looked up at her for a moment before leaning over the edge to look down at what lay beyond the square in the ground.
"Nothing - all black - we can't climb down, so all we can do is jump." Draco was about to offer to jump first, simply to get it over with, when he saw Harry motion towards himself with his left hand, still attempting to play the flute. I'll do it, the motion seemed to say and a frown tugged at the blond's lips. If the bottom of the hole was just solid stone, Harry would get hurt, and Draco really would rather he - who really had no importance to what was happening - be the one to get hurt than him.
"You want to go first? Are you sure?" Ron seemed just as concerned as Draco, and his blue eyes shone with it. "I don't know how deep the hole is. Give Draco or Hermione the flute so that he doesn't wake up."
Harry, who it seemed was still a bit annoyed about Draco's comment earlier about his lack of skill in playing the instrument, handed the flute over to Hermione, who seemed to do a better job at making an actual melody than him as she raised the wooden instrument to her lips, sending the three-headed dog that had already begun to wake up in the few seconds it took Harry to hand her the flute back to sleep.
Harry followed Ron over Fluffy's leg, much more confident than the redhead and landed on the floor beside him. He too looked over the edge of the doorway and frowned slightly, obviously seeing the same thing as Ron. After taking a deep breath, he slowly lowered himself down into the hole until he was only hanging there by his fingertips. "If something happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the Owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, okay?"
Ron nodded slightly, eyes still blazing with concern, and spoke in a trembling voice, "Okay."
Draco assumed Harry nodded as well, though he couldn't see him from where he was standing. "We'll see each other in a sec, hopefully…"
After that there was a moment of silence, meaning Harry had likely let go of his hold on the ground, then - "It's okay!" Harry's voice called up to them, distant as if he were far away from them, but still audible. "I landed on something soft, you can jump!"
Ron glanced over at Draco and Hermione and then jumped as well, not even bothering to lower himself down a bit first. He asked Harry something when he landed and he replied, but since they weren't trying to address the two still up in the corridor it was hard to discern what they were saying.
Draco glanced over at Hermione and when she nodded in response to his silent question, he himself climbed over Fluffy's leg. He hesitated for a second before jumping as well, unsure whether he would land on one of his friends or not. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, the blond stepped into the hole and felt gravity take hold of him, pulling him straight down. The air whooshed around him, messing up his hair that was already mostly out of its gel and stinging his eyes slightly. He landed on something not exactly soft as Harry had said, but not hard either, a few seconds later and a small gasp escaped him.
"Where in Merlin's name are we?" Draco whispered, tilting his head back to look up at where he had jumped from. The trapdoor was only a small dot of pale silver moonlight in the distance, hundreds, if not thousands, of feet above him.
The distant music stopped suddenly and a loud growl filled the silence, but before Fluffy could do anything more Hermione was already falling. She landed a few feet from Draco, beside Harry, and looked around them with a slightly confused expression. "We must be miles under the school," she murmured offhandedly.
"Lucky this weird plant thing is here," Ron said and Hermione's head snapped towards him, her eyes widening in horror.
"Lucky?" She cried, jumping up, and scampered to the nearest wall in an attempt to escape the vines that had already begun to wrap around her. "Look at you!"
Somehow none of them had realized that the second they landed thick vines had begun wrapping themselves around them like snakes. Harry, Ron, and Draco were already trapped, held down by the vines as if they were chained down.
Draco stared down at the vines slowly wrapping themselves around him, unable to move as panic seized him. He knew what they landed on now - Devil's Snare. Of course the Philosopher's Stone wouldn't have such easy access, not that a giant three-headed dog was exactly easy to get past. Still, Snape had gotten past it, so hopefully they could too.
"Stay still!" Hermione yelled then and Draco, who was already frozen, looked over at her for a second before looking at Harry and Ron. Both of them were struggling with the vines, desperately trying to pull themselves free from their hold, which only tightened the more they moved around. "I know what that is - it's Devil's Snare!"
Draco opened his mouth to say that he already knew that, but before he could, Ron yelled, very clearly exasperated, "Oh, good, knowing what's killing me helps me so much!" He leaned back, trying to get away from the vine trying to wrap itself around his neck, but not fully succeeding.
"Stay still while I try to figure out what you're supposed to do to get rid of it!" Hermione snapped at him and the redhead glared over at her, blue eyes blazing like the flames she had made back in winter. A distant memory from Herbology class suddenly tugged at Draco's mind and his eyes widened.
"Fire!" He yelled, gasping as the vines tightened around his chest, making it difficult to inhale. "It doesn't like fire!"
Hermione looked over at Draco in shock for a moment and then she nodded, looking around as if she was looking for something. "Of course, it loves the dark and the damp, so… of course, but… how am I supposed to make a fire? There's no wood!" She cried, eyes wide with panic and had Draco not been trapped in ropes of vines that were currently trying to suffocate him, he would have facepalmed.
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron roared, surprisingly loudly for someone who was also being strangled by Devil's Snare. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
Despite the situation, Draco couldn't help but feel a laugh escape his mouth. Perhaps he was suddenly a bit hysterical, perhaps the vine that had wrapped itself around his chest had squeezed tight enough that he had grown a bit loopy from lack of air, but either way, the redhead's scream sounded amusing to him.
"Oh, right!" Hermione said and frantically pulled her wand from her pocket, flicking it swiftly as she murmured the spell she had said dozens of times during the colder months of the year. The same blue flames that she had used to set Snape's robes on fire all the way back during the first quidditch match of year, which felt like it was years ago but was really only a few months ago, flew from the tip of her wand and hit the vines. Just a few seconds later the Devil's Snare began to loosen its hold around them and slithered away. Shaking, they pulled the remaining vines off of themselves and stood up.
"Lucky that you two pay attention in Herbology," Harry said as he scrambled over to the wall and pressed himself against it beside Hermione, the other two boys following him. He wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand and scowled at it in disgust when he wiped his hands on his robes to dry them off.
"Yeah, " Ron gasped and ran a hand through his red hair, making it stick up in almost every direction imaginable. "Lucky Draco doesn't lose his head in a crisis - 'there's no wood', honestly!"
Harry nodded and then pointed over at a single doorway, leading into a dark corridor. "That way," he said and walked towards it without waiting for the others to say anything in response.
The four of them wandered down the corridor in silence, the only sound audible being their own footsteps, which echoed off the walls back at them, and the soft sound of dripping water, which was rolling down the stone walls and dripping from the ceiling. The corridor sloped downwards and Draco shuddered, the place reminding him of the cellar in Malfoy Manor. He had only been down there once, when he was very young, and he couldn't remember why he had gone down there in the first place now. The whole memory was sort of blurred and distorted, like a lot of his memories from when he was a young child, though he assumed that was simply due to his memory not being great back then. Most didn't remember stuff that far back, right?
"Do you hear something?" He was pulled out of his thoughts by Ron, who had stopped walking and was frowning ever so slightly. The other three stopped as well and Draco closed his eyes, trying to listen to his surroundings better. Sure enough, a few seconds later the blond heard a quiet rustling and clicking that was coming from somewhere down the corridor, not far away from them.
"Do you think it's a ghost?" Harry asked softly, but Draco shook his head.
"I don't think so, it sounds like wings to me." Hermione nodded in agreement to his words, lips tugging down in a sort of half frown, half nervous smile.
"There's light ahead and I can see something moving," she said and for a moment they all stayed where they were, scared to go to the next thing that was meant to keep them away from the stone. Then they all continued walking again and slowly approached the end of the corridor, where it widened out into a bright room with a high ceiling far above them. Dozens of tiny, jewel-bright birds fluttered around above them, the origin of the sounds they had heard. On the far end of the room stood a thick, heavy wooden door that likely led to the next task or puzzle they had to figure out.
"Do you think they'll attack us if we go through?" Ron asked as he tilted his head back to look up at the birds, a frown marring his face.
"Probably," Harry said, following the redhead's gaze for a moment before looking over at the door. "They don't really look all too dangerous, but if they all go at us at once, well… we don't really have any other choice. I'm running over."
He took a deep breath and then ran across the room, covering his face with his arms to shield it. Draco looked nervously up at the birds, but none of them even turned towards Harry. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he glanced between the birds and Harry. If they weren't supposed to attack the person trying to get to the other side of the door, then why were they there?
After a moment's hesitation Hermione, Ron, and Draco followed the Boy Who Lived to the other side of the room, running as well just in case the birds did end up attacking them. The door was locked, its handle slightly rusted, and it didn't even budge when each in turn they tried to cast Alohomora on it and then attempted it together.
"What now?" Ron asked, glaring down at the door as he kicked it, like that would do anything. He grimaced in pain then and hissed "Bloody hell!"
"Those birds… they can't just be there for show," Hermione said, voicing Draco's previous thoughts. Harry, Hermione, and Draco all looked up at the birds while Ron continued to hop around a bit on one foot, pain and annoyance on his face. The birds flew in circles around each other like they were dancing, the light from above glinting off of them - wait, glinting?
"Those aren't birds!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, his eyes widening slightly. "Those are keys! Winged keys, look really closely. That must mean... " He squinted around the outside of the room, looking for something, though what it was he was looking for, Draco didn't really know. "...yeah, look! Brooms! We need to catch the key for the door!"
Draco looked over at Harry in shock, he expected them to be able to figure out which one it was? "But there are hundreds of them!" He hissed and Harry shrugged slightly, the look on his face showing that he didn't have a clue how to figure it out either.
"We're looking for a big, old fashioned key - probably silver, like the lock." Ron suddenly said and Draco spun to face him. He was leaning down slightly, his foot forgotten, and was inspecting the doorknob and lock, head tilted to the side in concentration. Draco found himself giving the redhead an impressed look, he never would have been able to figure that out, no matter how long he stared at the door. His family rarely used keys, they thought they were a waste of time, and usually just used spells that only let certain people open doors.
"Well, if you're right, then that certainly narrows things down a bit for us," Draco said and then went to grab a broom, the others following. The second he was in the air, the familiar feeling of freedom he always got when in the air swept over him and he had to force himself not to just mess around, now was not the time. They had to find that key and catch it so they could stop Snape before it was too late - Merlin, that was not something Draco had thought he would ever think.
The flying keys immediately began flying around, trying to escape the four of them as they tried to grab at them. Many of them would only get away just in time and would in the process scratch up their arms or hands. For a while they just sort of flew around in the cloud of winged keys, trying to spot the one they were looking for, but even though Draco was a rather good seeker, he couldn't spot it. He assumed either Harry or Ron would end up spotting the key they needed, but still continued to look for it himself.
"That one!" Harry yelled a few minutes later, proving Draco's previous thoughts correct. "The big one - there - no, there - with bright blue wings - all messed up on one side." He pointed at a key that fit Ron's description perfectly and had a slightly bent wing as if it had already been grabbed roughly by someone.
Ron raced towards the key and when it quickly moved out of the way, faster than Draco would have expected due to its injured wing, he ran into the ceiling, almost falling off his broom but managing to keep his grip on the broom well enough to stay up.
"Are you okay?" Draco called and the redhead nodded, though he scowled down at his broom and rubbed his head slightly with his hand like it hurt.
"Perfectly fine, thanks!" He called back and then slowly flew down a bit, away from the ceiling, which he also glared at like it was at fault for him crashing into it.
"We have to circle it!" Harry yelled, somewhat ignoring the fact that Ron had almost fallen down to the ground far below. "Ron, you go from the top; Hermione, you come from under in case it flies down; and Draco, you go to the side that isn't broken, it's more likely to fly that way than the other way. I'll try and catch it. Okay, NOW!"
With that they all flew at the key. Hermione shot up towards it like a cork, Ron flew down in a dive. The key managed to avoid both of them, but thereby didn't notice Harry and Draco and was backed up against the wall, where Harry pressed it against the stone and then grabbed hold of it. The key's wings crunched loudly as he did so and Draco winced slightly but cheered with the others anyway.
They all flew back down to the ground, Draco and Harry sliding off their brooms with ease, while Hermione and Ron struggled a bit more, almost falling down. Harry walked swiftly across the room and took a deep breath before shoving the key into the lock. It gave a loud click when he turned it and Harry let go of the key, which immediately flew off again, both wings now crinkled and bent. Draco watched as it flew up to the cloud of other keys and disappeared from sight, blending in with the others. He really hoped the door would just stay unlocked after this, but he wasn't sure. If Snape had already come through, and the door was still locked, what did that mean? Could they not get back out?
"Ready?" Harry asked them, glancing back at the other three with his hand on the doorknob, prepared to turn it. They nodded and he took a deep breath before pushing open the door.