Throughout the first week of school, Selena became best friends with her dorm mates and night times were like a constant sleepover. Although, it was hard to ignore Veronica and her snobby attitude. Selena would often get crumpled paper and spit balls thrown in her hair and Draco picked up on the harassment when he bumped into Selena picking paper out of her hair with a grim expression. "You okay there Moonlight?" Draco asked her. "What happened?"
"Blackwood and her plastic attitude happened." She said grimly.
Draco grimaced and started picking spit balls out of her hair. "That girl is such a witch."
Selena snorted a laugh. "I'm a witch too Draco."
"You know what I mean." He chuckled.
"I can't stand that girl!" Selena complained to her friends after class.
"I can't either, she's like Heather Chandler, from that movie." said Vanessa.
"I wish she was more like Veronica Sawyer." chuckled Odessa.
"I know what you mean, she's worse than Dudley." said Selena nodding.
"She tripped me over on the staircase the other day. I nearly broke my neck." Asha explained.
"What? That's like attempted murder." shrieked Adeline.
"Well look who we have here," Veronica sneered as she approached the girls from behind. "A dog, a frog, a freak, a toad and Scarface." Veronica sneered at the group of girls.
Selena glared at her nemesis. "You'd be a lot more likeable if not for that hole in your mouth that noise comes out of, Blackwood." She snapped.
Veronica narrowed her eyes at the red-haired girl. "I'd could take you on anytime on my own, girl to girl." said Blackwood.
"Tonight, if you want. Witches' duel. Wand's only – no contact,"
Harry and Ron had already seen the raven-haired girl approach the girls and immediately hurried over. "Oh no, I smell trouble." Harry said, worried.
"I think that's her perfume." Ron chuckled as Veronica continued on.
"What's the matter? Never heard of a witches' duel before, I suppose?"
"Yes, she has!" Ron stepped in. "Harry and I are her seconds, who's yours?"
Veronica looked at Ron in surprise. She gritted her teeth together. "I don't need a second you pureblood filth, cause I am the perfect one in this school."
She said before turning to Selena. "Midnight, in the Trophy Room. That place is always unlocked."
When Blackwood had gone, Ron smiled at the girls. "You ladies okay?"
"We're fine Ron, thanks for saving our butts." Selena said.
Odessa looked at the twins in concern. "I don't think you guys are out of the woods yet. You just said that you were gonna duel Veronica." "
Which begs the question," Harry started. "What's a witch's duel?"
"And what's a second?" Selena added
"Well, a second's there to take over if you die,' said Ron casually. Catching the looks on the twins faces, he added quickly. "But people only die during real duels, you know, with real witches and wizards. The most you and Blackwood'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you know enough magic to do any real damage, even with Veronica's bragging. I bet she expected you to refuse, anyway Selena." Ron explained.
"What if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"
"Throw it away and slap that bitch in the face." Vanessa suggested.
Or I could throw her across the room with my telekinesis. Selena thought savagely.
Odessa stared at Selena in surprise, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose. "You're not seriously thinking of actually duelling her, are you? It's forbidden to wander the corridors at night, think of what that could cost for Gryffindor if you get caught." she said, pushing her glasses back into place.
"If it makes you feel better, Veronica's doing the same." Ron said matter-of-factly.
Vanessa frowned. "True, I think Evan would hate us if we costed Ravenclaw a few points. I wanna put that girl in her place as much as the next witch, and you've already said you were going to, so I don't think you have much choice."
All the same, the end of the day wasn't what you'd call perfect. Harry let his thoughts wander, as he lay awake much later listening to Neville's snoring. Ron had spent the whole evening lecturing the twins on duelling advice. Selena also lay awake in her bed, thinking over her options. She had never managed to stand up to a bully before so that was a good enough excuse to duel Blackwood, even if there was a good chance of getting caught by Filch or Mrs Norris. Still, Selena felt like she was pushing her luck.
On the other hand, Blackwood's sneering face along with her harassment kept looming out of the darkness – this was her big chance to beat Blackwood face-to-face. She couldn't miss it. "Half-past eleven," she muttered at last. "I'd better go."
She met Ron and Harry down in the common room, pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept towards the portrait hole when a lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown. "You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"
"Hermione, how did you know?" Selena demanded.
"I overheard your little lecture," Hermione explained, before turning to Ron. "I almost told your brother. Percy – he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this!" Hermione snapped.
Harry couldn't believe someone could be so interfering. "Come on," he said to Ron and Selena.
He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole. Hermione wasn't giving up that easily so she followed them through, hissing like an angry goose. "None of you care about Gryffindor, do you? You only care about yourselves! If we lose our chance at the House Cup this year, we'll know who's to blame."
"Go away," Ron said. "No one's asking you to follow us Hermione."
"All right, but I warned you, when you're on the train back home tomorrow, you're so – "
But what they were, they never knew as the portrait of the Fat Lady was now void of the latter, leaving Hermione locked out. "Now what I going to do?" she asked, shrilly.
"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've gotta go, we're going to be late."
They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them. "I'm coming with you." she said.
Selena turned around and smiled. "Why the sudden change?"
"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us, I'll tell him the truth and you can back me up."
"No one's gonna get caught." Selena said. "Come on,"
They flitted along the corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn, Harry and Selena expected to run into Filch or Mrs Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up the staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.
Veronica wasn't there yet.
The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winking in silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Everyone had their wands ready in case Veronica leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.
"Maybe she's chickened out," Ron whispered.
"Psst!" hissed a voice that made them jump.
They all looked around for the source of the voice.
"Psst!"
Selena whirled her head around and saw someone standing in the darkness behind one of the cabinets, a tall, pixie haircut, blue eyed someone. "Evan!" Selena whispered. "What are you doing here?"
Evan stepped into their line of sight, wearing a midnight bluebathrobe. "I came to warn you, Veronica was never going to be here,"
Harry and Selena stared at the Ravenclaw girl in stunned surprise. "What?"
"Yes, Vanessa owled me on what was happening and asked me to spy on Veronica. I woke up around eleven o'clock, but she was fast asleep in her bed. She was never going to meet you in the first place."
"So this was all just a skit to get us into trouble?" Ron asked.
Evan nodded.
Selena felt completely stupid. Of course, Veronica would try something like this. While she was safe and warm in her bed, they were left running about the school like headless chickens until they were caught by Filch and sent home on the train the next morning. How diabolical could a person be?
"There's more, she tipped- "Evan covered her mouth when they heard someone else speak – and it wasn't Blackwood.
"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch talking to Mrs Norris.
Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other four to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Evan had barely whipped around the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter. "probably hiding."
"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour.
They could hear Filch getting nearer. Evan stubbed her toe in the dark on an uneven bit of flooring and she toppled right into a suit of armour.
The crashing and clanging was loud enough to wake the whole castle.
"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the five of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following them – they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor and the next, Harry in the lead, clinging to Selena's hand, without any idea where they were or where they were going – they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms Classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.
"I think we lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his sweaty forehead. Evan was bent double, wheezing and spluttering. "I – told – you," Hermione gasped, clutching the stitch in her chest.
"We've got to get back to our House Towers," said Ron. "ASAP!"
"How did Filch know we were in there?" Selena panted breathlessly.
"That's – what I was – trying – to tell you all," Evan wheezed, getting her breath back. "Veronica tipped Filch off that someone was going to be in there tonight."
"Remind me to give that bitch a good hard smack in the morning." Selena scowled. Her face flushed with embarrassment at her use of language. "Pardon my French."
"I'll do your homework for the next two weeks if you break her nose." Evan winked.
"Enough, we have to go now." Harry said. "Come on."
It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't one more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them. It was Peeves. He caught sight of them instantly and gave a squeal of delight. "Shut up, Peeves – please – you'll get us all caught."
Peeves cackled. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."
"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please." Selena begged.
"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."
"Piss off!" Evan snapped, taking a swipe at Peeves.
This was a big mistake. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door – and it was locked.
"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly against the door, "We're done for! This is the end!" They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeve's shouts. "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"
The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening. "Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."
"Say 'please.'"
"Stop messing around Peeves, now where did they go?"
"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.
"All right – please."
"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaa!"
And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.
"H-H-Harry," Selena whimpered quietly.
"He thinks this door is locked." Harry whispered, not hearing his sister. "I think we'll be okay – get off Selena."
For Selena had been tugging on her brother's sleeve for the last minute. "What is it?"Selena whimpered and pointed into the room with a shaking arm. Harry followed her finger and froze. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he had walked into a nightmare – this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.
They weren't in a room, as they had supposed. They were in a corridor, the Forbidden Corridor on the Third Floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. The monster canine was covered in black, shaggy fur. It had three heads.
Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery robes from yellowish fangs. It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and the twins knew that the only reason the dog hadn't charged was that they had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant. Harry groped for the doorknob – between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.
They practically jumped out of the room – Harry slammed the door shut, locked it, then they ran, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, even after they split up with Evan, who ran in the direction of the Ravenclaw tower. They hoped she wouldn't get caught.
None of them stopped running until they reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor. "Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.
"Never mind that – pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung open. They all scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.
It was a while before anyone said anything, Selena, indeed, looked as if she'd never speak again.
But she did. "Safest place on earth? Safest place on earth besides Gringotts?! What a joke, keeping a creature like that locked up in a school of all places."
"Agreed, what are they thinking? If any dog needs exercise, that one certainly does." Ron nodded.
Hermione had gotten her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."
"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She stood up, glaring at them. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Ron stared after her, his mouth open. "Unbelievable," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you." he said, walking up into his dorm. Harry and Selena looked at each other, now alone in the common room.
Hermione had given the twins something else to think about as they sat there in the dark. The dog was guarding something…What had Hagrid said?
Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide – except perhaps Hogwarts. Selena looked into her brother's identical green eyes. "Harry, I think we may have just found where that grubby package from Vault 713 is kept."
So instead of Draco being the one to start the midnight duel, it's the bi- I mean... Veronica...