I'm so sorry! Merry Christmas everyone and all that jazz. :o) Notes at the end for those who want to read my excuses.


Sora opened his eyes on Saturday morning, instantly awake as he stretched with a yawn. Sitting up, he smiled and reached down to pat the warm furry ball on his feet. Baubles yawned and stretched, blinking up at him blearily as she purred and pushed her head into his hand, demanding more pats. Sora obliged her with a grin and scratched her under the chin, enjoying the way she tilted her black head to allow him access to all her favourite spots.

Looking around the dormitory, Sora noticed that all his roommates were still sound asleep. He must be up early. Oh well. It was Saturday.

Climbing out of bed, Sora quietly got changed for the day and picked Baubles up once he was done. Carrying her down the stairs, he scratched her behind the ear, both feeling and hearing her purr loudly against his chest, and left the Gryffindor tower. Carrying her down to the kitchens (James had shown him where they were), he tickled the pear and stepped inside as the portrait swung outwards.

House elves stopped to look at him curiously as he stepped in. One of the house elves scooted forward and bowed. "Good morning, Master," it squeaked as it straightened up again and wrung its hands together anxiously. "What can Dobbins do for Master?"

"Have you got any cat food?" Sora asked with a smile, having gotten a bit used to being addressed as 'Master' by the elves.

"Of course," Dobbins squeaked as he rushed off to collect some from a pantry. "Was there none upstairs?"

"I didn't actually check," Sora replied honestly, feeling a little sheepish.

Baubles meowed loudly in protest at being held and pushed against Sora's chest, demanding to be put down.

Doing just that, Sora let her down as Dobbins came back with a bowl of cat food and milk.

She immediately ran over and began eating daintily at the fish in the bowl, purring her appreciation.

Dobbins smiled and looked up at Sora. "Will Master be needing anything else? Some breakfast perhaps?"

"No, it's alright. Thank you though. I'll eat with the others. Do you know what the time is?" Sora asked sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

Dobbins blinked and quickly checked a clock on the wall. "It is 6:21am," the house elf reported.

"Thanks," Sora replied. "Will you let Baubles out when she's finished eating?"

"Certainly," Dobbins squeaked with a smile. "Have a pleasant day Master."

"You too. Thanks for the delicious food everyone! Keep up the good work!" Sora yelled loudly through the kitchens, ensuring every house elf heard him.

They all chorused varying degrees of responses, most being high pitched and giggly.

Waving, Sora left the kitchens and headed towards the Slytherin Dungeons.

Walking quietly through the cold underground dungeons, Sora grinned to himself as he imagined Riku's response to being woken up so early, especially with no sunlight.

It was something the two teens had done since they had started middle school. Riku would wake Sora up on school days, because for some reason he always seemed to sleep in on a school day, and Sora would get his revenge on the weekend by taking great pleasure in waking Riku up bright and early, because again, like a child, he was awake at the first sign of sunlight on the weekends. It also meant he crashed early. Their sleepovers had always had to start at about midday, because Sora would only manage to stay awake until ten at the latest before he was unconscious, and Riku would sleep in until about ten in the morning. They were an odd pair.

Giving the wall marking the entrance to the Slytherin Common Rooms the password, the Latin name of a particular breed of snake, Sora slipped inside and waved brightly to a couple of first years who were up and talking quietly in the common room. They stared at him in surprise as he immediately made a beeline for the steps leading up to Riku's dormitory.

Riku had brought him down here one night during the week and had shown him around. The Slytherin Dungeons were spacious; he'd give them that. But they were also cold and gloomy. Sora much preferred the Gryffindor Tower. At least it was warm and brightly coloured and didn't smell like mold.

Slipping into his best friends dormitory, Sora squinted in the dim light as he scanned the beds, trying to spot his friend. Tiptoeing over to the bed he remembered was Riku's, Sora pulled back the curtains and grinned as he found the silver haired islander sleeping like he normally did.

Covers down around his waist, chest bare, a pillow clutched at his side, head turned towards the pillow, mouth open, and drool making a nice wet patch in the sheets. His legs were parted, one straight and the other at a ninety-degree angle, easily visible under the covers.

Snorting quietly in laughter, Sora attempted to stifle his giggles. Seeing Riku like this never failed to amuse him. His best friend was so good looking in everything but sleep. Climbing onto the covers, Sora moved the pillow so it was in a more comfortable position for himself and lay down beside his friend.

Riku grumbled as the bed dipped and rolled onto his side, turning towards Sora.

Sora laughed quietly to himself as he lay there and watched Riku sleep for a bit, taking in the version of his vain best friend that very few people got to see.

After there was no response for a couple of minutes, Sora decided to increase the staring up a step and wriggled closer, his body only a few millimeters from the older teens and he started intently into Riku's face, waiting to see how long it would take.

After about thirty seconds, Riku's nose twitched and he grumbled, burying his face further into the pillow. "…ra….off," came the slurred and barely audible grumble from the older teen, and Sora laughed quietly to himself as he reached a finger up to poke the crinkled skin between the silver eyebrows.

"Good Morning Riku."

"Sora… get lost," Riku groaned, opening an aquamarine eye to glare at his best friend. "It's too early."

"It's six-thirty," Sora protested, still smiling.

"Way too early," Riku grumbled and rolled onto his stomach. "Why can't you be like a normal person and sleep in on weekends?"

Sora laughed quietly again as Riku reached a hand up to rub at his knotted up hair. "You're so grumpy this morning."

"That's because it's Saturday," Riku grumbled as he rolled back over to glare up at his best friend while still half asleep. "Go back to bed. Get some sleep."

"Sleep? Sleep is boring," Sora replied with a small whine. "There's so much to do on a Saturday. You're better off getting up early."

"Unlike you oh bright sunshine, I like sleep. Now leave me alone for another two hours or I won't help you with any of your homework."

Sora just wriggled closer, widening his eyes even further.

Riku's eyes narrowed further. "Leave me alone Sora otherwise I'll never make you brownies ever again."

The next thing Riku knew, Sora had flung himself out of bed and he was out the door. "You have an hour!" Sora called over his shoulder as he rushed down the stairs.

Snorting to himself, Riku closed his eyes again and pulled the covers up over his shoulders.

There was a grumble from one of his roommates. "Shut up…"

"He's gone," Riku replied sleepily.

"Good."

LINEBREAK

Sora found himself wandering the castle, exploring corridors and other areas he hadn't yet had time to. Hogwarts was enormous, and so impressive. It was amazing no one got lost. Although he supposed that the reason why no one got lost was because they all managed to get lost at one point and then un-lose themselves. I mean, who wouldn't want to explore a massive magic castle?

Turning another corner, Sora blinked and grinned as he spotted two knights fighting in a large painting at the end of the corridor, loud cheers just reaching his ears from the other portraits watching and the few ladies watching in the background who applauded politely, a couple of women in fancy dresses waving dainty handkerchiefs' to egg the fighting males on..

Walking closer, Sora stood and laughed quietly as the black knight stumbled on his too large armor while the white knight tripped and fell flat on his face. Both of them connected the painted ground with a loud clang of metal against stone.

Quickly ducking his head and walking past, Sora listened as they got to their feet again and began insulting each other.

Jumping down a short set of stairs, Sora found himself back at the Grand Staircase and went down another level. The stairs moved halfway there and he sighed before shrugging. Third floor it was.

Opening the wooden door he was presented with, Sora looked inside curiously. It was dark, and dusty. It looked like there hadn't been anyone here in a long time. With one last glance behind him, Sora stepped inside, and as soon as his feet touched the cold, dusty concrete, lanterns lit up on either side of him.

Closing the door, Sora looked both ways before making a decision. Right. Turning, he started walking down the corridor, making a note of all the cobwebs draping the stone statues like a veil and the thick layer of dust covering the floor and lanterns. The lanterns were starting to smoke from all the dust on them.

Eventually, Sora came to a closed door. Lifting the latch, the brunette frowned as he found it locked. Looking back the way he'd come, he shrugged and stepped back a few steps, summoned the keyblade and unlocked the door. It creaked open, and Sora stepped cautiously through the door.

He entered into a large circular room with large windows. Eyes wide, he looked around the room, eyes focusing on a trap door in the low light. It seemed to be the only other exit in the room. Crossing the floor curiously, Sora opened the trapdoor with a huge heave and his eyes bulged at the sight of the large vines that writhed and very quickly reached towards him. One snaked around his ankle, and another caressed his cheek, both leaving a layer of slime, and Sora quickly stepped back. The vine shrieked in pain as it was jerked into the rays of sunlight and quickly shrunk back, leaving Sora room to shut the trap door.

Letting his heart settle for a few moments, Sora looked down at his ankle and grimaced, reaching down the wipe the slime off his ankle that had been left there. He used his sleeve to wipe his cheek off too.

Quickly getting up, he left the room and shut the door behind him again. It locked itself as he quickly walked back down the corridor. Peering around the door, Sora made sure no one had seen him before continuing along the left side of the Third Floor corridor.

There was more dust and more statues, but nothing of interest.

By the time Sora decided it was time for breakfast, he was sure more than an hour had passed. Quickly heading down to the Great Hall, Sora entered the room and scanned it for his best friend.

Riku was sitting with Albus, Lily and Rose at the Gryffindor table. Quickly walking down the corridor, he grinned and waved as the others spotted him, slowing as their smiles dropped and their eyes widened. "What?" he asked warily as he sat down slowly.

"Where the hell have you been?" Riku asked around a mouthful of food. "You look like a statue."

Sora blinked and looked down at himself, standing and patting himself down. Clouds of dust came flying off him, and he ran a hand through his hair, pulling cobwebs off his spikes that had fallen there accidently.

"You're having a shower after breakfast," Riku decided, looking unimpressed.

"Where the hell were you to get that much dust on you?" Lily asked, looking impressed and mildly disgusted at the same time.

"I was exploring," Sora replied as he sat down again.

"Exploring where?" Rose asked slowly.

"I found this really dusty portion on the third floor-"

"Sora, that's forbidden!" Rose hissed quietly, glancing around them to make sure no one was listening.

"Really?" Sora asked with a frown. "I don't see why it is. I mean, there's some sort of plant growing under a trap door in a room at the end of that corridor, but that's it."

"Plant?" Albus asked curiously.

"Yeah. It reached out and touched me, and it slimed me." Sora grimaced and rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand and his ankle on the back of his other leg.

Rose looked fascinated. "What did it look like?"

"It had vines, but they moved. Oh, and when the vine touched the sunlight it shrieked and shrunk back."

"And you said it slimed you?" Rose asked curiously.

"Yeah," Sora replied, nodding.

Rose looked thoughtful for a while. "I wonder what happens if Devil's Snare gets slimy."

"You don't really think the Devil's Snare is still there, do you?" Albus asked his cousin. "That was all there ages ago. Surely someone would have removed it before now."

"Well no one uses that area, so they probably figured it was easier to leave everything where it was," Lily replied with a shrug.

"Hold up, I'm missing something here," Riku pushed in as he put his fork down. "Explain."

The three Gryffindor's exchanged looks before Albus nodded. He leant forward and motioned them a bit closer.

Sora and Riku blinked at each other but moved closer anyway.

"When our parents were back in their first year here at Hogwarts, there was a series of things that happened. On the third floor, there used to be a three headed dog called Fluffy-" Sora frowned at the mention of this – "who guarded a trap door that lead to where Albus Dumbledore was hiding the philosopher's stone at the time. Our parents went in there to retrieve it about the end of their first year, because they believe that someone was trying to steal it, and they were. It just wasn't who they thought it was."

"So what happened?" Sora asked.

"Well, Fluffy was taken elsewhere. Hagrid was very upset apparently. And Aunt Hermione was under the impression that the room had been dismantled once it was no longer needed. Apparently there are a number of traps and puzzles under the Devil's Snare. Uncle Ron was saying there's this massive game of Wizard's Chess. They apparently had to play and win. It was brutal from what he described."

"Wizards Chess?" Riku asked curiously.

Rose, Lily and Albus's eyes widened. "You've never seen Wizard's chess?"

"Why would I have?" Riku replied.

"Oh man, are you in for an experience," Albus replied with a grin. "I know what I'm teaching you this weekend."

Riku and Sora looked at each other before shrugging and Sora collected some food, still frowning thoughtfully.

Once he filled his plate, Sora pulled his arm back and opened his mouth to voice what he'd been thinking about. "When you say three-headed dog, was it black?"

Riku blinked and looked at his best friend curiously.

Albus frowned before nodding. "I think he was. Why?"

"I met a three-headed dog called Cerberus a while back, but I had to fight him. He was vicious. How did your parents get past at the time without being killed?"

Albus, Rose and Lily all exchanged looks.

"I think mum said there was a harp playing at the time they went in," Rose replied slowly.

"Yeah," Albus replied, nodding in agreement. "Apparently Fluffy's weakness was music. You played him a bit of music and he fell straight to sleep, according to Hagrid anyway." (A/N: Okay, who else reads this in Hagrid's voice? Every time I read it I do.)

Sora blinked a couple of times before frowning slightly. "I wonder…."

"Sora, no," Riku replied with a sigh, knowing exactly what his best friend was thinking.

"Aww, c'mon, Riku."

"No. I am not rushing in to save your arse when you're about to get it mauled."

Sora pouted a bit before shrugging. "Oh well." Subject pretty much forgotten, Sora got stuck into his breakfast.

LINEBREAK

"Whoa!" Riku said loudly as the sound of breaking china echoed around the Gryffindor Common Room.

Albus reached forward to smugly pick the shattered remains of a china pawn off the chessboard.

Hugo gave him an amused look before looking back down at the board. "Pawn to C3." The red chess piece moved forward of its own accord and sat there.

"Bishop to C3," Albus ordered, and grinned as he watched his white bishop cross the board diagonally, only to animate and spear the red pawn, breaking it into large, porcelain pieces.

Once Hugo had cleared the board, he thought for a moment before nodding. "Knight to C3."

As they watched, the red knight moved, and the knight on the horse drew a sword and cut the bishop in half.

"That is brutal," Sora replied with a wince. "But so cool at the same time."

Albus and Hugo laughed and Albus cleaned up his bishop. "Okay, seriously now. I'm not letting you mutilate any more of my pieces so easily from now on."

"Same here," Hugo replied with a grin.

LINEBREAK

Sora yawned and closed his eyes, enjoying the sun on his face as he lay on the grass. A shadow fell over his face and his eyes opened in surprise, jolting with surprise when he found Yuffie in his face. "Whoa!"

The ninja laughed and moved to sit down on the grass beside him. "Hey. So this is where you've been hiding all day."

"Only the last hour or so," Sora replied with a smile and a shrug. "Rose has been making me study. My brain felt like it was about to explode. I needed to get away."

"Fair enough."

They both sat and stared out at the Black Lake for a while in silence, just listening to the wind blow through the trees and the grass, and the birds chirping. In the distance, a tree groaned as it moved.

"It's so peaceful," Yuffie murmured suddenly. Sora looked at her curiously as she wrapped her arms around her knees. "I'm just wondering what's going to happen. We all have to be here for a reason."

"Zexion had the same theory," Sora replied after a few moments. "He thinks this world is trying to protect itself by calling all of us here."

"It would make sense," Yuffie replied with a nod. "The question is, from what though?"

Sora shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

They were silent for a while before Yuffie spoke up again.

"Wanna spar for a bit?"

Sora laughed and nodded. "You're on."

That was where Riku found them twenty minutes later, with Sora flat on his back and laughing his head off, keyblade lying a few feet from his hand and Yuffie laughing so hard her knees looked like they would buckle at any moment.

Shaking his head, he left them to it.

Tbc~


Okay, so i'll be honest and say I am so sorry. I've had the five chapters redone for a couple of weeks now. I just finished proofreading them tonight, and the next five are ready to go. :)

My excuses (warning... Vent alert), for those who want to listen to them, are that my mother went in for surgery, came out of surgery, spent two weeks in bed while I ran around cleaning her house, because it was a pigsty and she doesn't clean. I then had work, and spent a weekend in Sydney with family for Christmas, so got nothing done there (had an absolute ball though).

Since I got back my mother has been a psychotic nutcase for the last three days (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day), and i've been dealing with her throwing abuse at me (telling me that my father should have died in January; that she doesn't know why I put up with him; that i've allowed "the filth" (dad's girlfriend, who is lovely by the way) to infiltrate my life and that that i'm slowly being corrupted - i'm being tricked into thinking that she's nice - that she wants me to like her; that pretty soon i'm no longer going to be welcome inside my own house, ect.), and have been trying to draw her out of her funk, which i'm just fed up with doing! She's acting like a child and i'm sick of being the adult and the bigger person when I shouldn't have to be! It's not fair! Every time she goes on a vengeance streak I'm the one that ends up getting hurt! I get the blame if I leave her alone, and then I get blamed if I stay close. I get blamed for not telling her things about Dad's girlfriend and she accuses me of lying, which i'm not, and then she rants and raves at me when I do tell her! It's a no-win situation and i'm essentially stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm damn sick of it! It's not fair! And she keeps ignoring me! the only way I can get her to talk to me outside of her throwing vicious insults at me about my father is by seeing her face to face. I'm meant to be taking her to coast tomorrow, but I doubt that will happen because she's been ignoring me for days, despite my efforts to make contact. I'm sick of it! I've reached the point that i've just gone "fuck it" and thrown my hands up in the air in surrender. With the rate she's going i'm going to have to cease all contact with her for my own mental and emotional health. As it is, work is contemplating sending me to a counsellor.

Sorry for ranting, but I can't really rant anywhere else. She's connected to everything else i'm on, and she comments on everything else. I've just been getting it from all angles, so I haven't had a chance to really hide away before now. I haven't had the time to even get time inside my own head really before tonight.

So, i'm now off work until 6th Jan. Dad has just decided to repaint the whole house. I kid you not, I left for work this morning and his plan was to finish the wick garden he's making in the claw footed bathtub on the front balcony (I miss that bath. It was a fantastic bath. Much better than the spa bath we have now). I get home, and he's torn his and his gf's bedroom to pieces - everything is in the dining room/loungeroom and he's got all his painting gear out and has started painting. *shakes head* Gotta love my father. He dropped the ceiling fan on himself earlier when he was taking it off so he could paint around it. Good thing I was hovering at the time.

Oh, and to top Boxing day off, I was permanently traumatised by trifle (to the point that I nearly throw up if I look at it for too long) by a seriously messed up dream (you really don't want to know), we had to run poor Normy (the cat) to the vet because he got torn up by our neighbours cat AGAIN (bastard cat. He needs his neck wrung) and my sister almost got abducted while walking home from a friend's place, so we had to call the police.

I hope your Christmases were less eventful and more pleasant than mine. Again, sorry for the vent.

Vex