Last chapter for today! Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 6:
Terry and Josh started walking towards the great hall quietly. It was the first time they have been to Dumbledore's office and they had some trouble finding their way back. However, none of them paid much attention to where they were going as they were both deep in their thoughts;
'I was kinda hoping it was me who was Harry Potter,' Josh suddenly said, grinning. Terry was so surprised at this unpredictable statement that his response was automatic;
'What?'
'Hey, I was only kidding, relax,' Josh said, 'only trying to make conversation.'
'Oh,' Terry replied, 'so… what did you see when Dumbledore did that spell?'
'Nothing interesting,' Josh answered, 'I only saw some bits from when I was a baby, but there was also one bit where I heard some screaming and a male voice laughing. Obviously, it wasn't James Potter. I couldn't see anything - it was too dark.'
Terry nodded, 'I guess they hid you somewhere. They didn't have to work that hard because Voldemort didn't know you existed, so he didn't look for you. They probably put you in some cupboard, or something. It actually figures: they wouldn't want to hide me as well because then he would have found both of us.'
'I still can't believe you are Harry Potter.'
'Hey, are you two lost? The great hall is on the other side of the castle.' Terry and Josh both whirled around as they heard the now familiar bossy voice of Hermione Granger.
They both looked at her warily, wondering if she heard anything, 'that's none of your business, Granger,' Josh said.
'Hey, relax, I was only trying to help,' Hermione answered, brushing a strand of bushy brown hair away from her face, looking annoyed.
'Oh, yeah? Well, we don't need your help, so piss off,' Terry said. He half expected her to burst out in tears, like she always did, but what she said next made his heart stop for a few seconds;
'Maybe so,' she said, 'but that does not mean that I cannot spill your secret, Potter.'
Terry's throat went dry as he looked at Josh helplessly. He had no idea what he was supposed to do and, unfortunately, Josh looked as clueless as him.
'Don't worry,' Hermione said quickly, 'I didn't mean it, I am not going to tell anyone, but this is only because I have a really good reason, which I am not going to tell you yet. The only thing I can tell you for now is that you cannot trust Dumbledore.'
Terry looked at her with narrowed eyes, 'you are different,' was all he said. And he meant it. Hermione was always quite, with no friends and no personality. She always seemed to be hurt by anything anyone said and was spending most of her time crying. Now, however, she looked harder and more in control of herself. It was a bit weird, the way she just came up behind them and told them that she knew about their secret. Was she following them?
Hermione let out a short laugh, understanding perfectly well what Terry had meant, 'it's all just an act,' she said, 'and it's very difficult to keep up. Look, don't ask me any questions and don't tell anyone what I just told you, and I won't tell anybody about you.'
'I'm not very interested to hear about you or your life,' Josh said dryly, 'but I'm just very interested about one comment you made; why shouldn't we trust Dumbledore?'
'Just something to keep in mind,' Hermione said as dryly as Josh did, 'anyway, I can show you the way to the great hall if you want me to, but I'm not gonna stay there.'
'Like I care,' Josh muttered, but they both followed her anyway, as they did not feel like spending the rest of the night looking for it.
Terry would not admit it, but he was a bit curios as to why Hermione bothered to keep that act on. She seemed pretty cool when she was not always sobbing.
It turned out that Terry and Josh were walking in the completely wrong direction as it took them about an hour to reach the great hall, which was, as Hermione had said, on the other side of the castle. Terry faintly wondered what Hermione was doing there. When they reached the great hall, Hermione turned around quickly waving at them, and strolled in a different direction before anyone could see her. Weirdo.
Terry took a seat at the Gryffindor table, Josh doing the same beside him, and looked up at the staff table to see Dumbledore waving at him. Hermione seemed pretty serious when she said that he should not have trusted Dumbledore and he wondered what was wrong with him. However, he decided to take her advice, just to be extra precautious.
He was so deep in thought as he ate that he did not notice anything that was going on around him until the doors to the great hall swung open and professor Quirrel was standing in the doorway. Terry immediately sensed that something was wrong by Quirrel's white face and frightened expression.
'TROLL,' Quirrel shouted, 'IN THE DUNGEONS!!! TROLL!!!'
Everyone in the great hall fell silent, shocked.
'Just thought you ought to know,' Quirrel mumbled, then fell to the floor, unconscious, as he fainted.
As if a switch has been turned on, everyone in the great hall suddenly started screaming, abandoning the food and getting up from their chairs, running around in all directions, pushing each other in panic.
'SILENCE!' Everyone stopped in their trucks at the shout and looked around to see Dumbledore on his feet, looking alarmed. As he spoke again, however, he sounded surprisingly calm, 'I want everyone to return to their dormitories,' he said quietly, but no one had any difficulty hearing him as the silence in the great hall was deathly, 'prefects, make sure all the students return safely to their dormitories, teachers, come with me.'
There was suddenly noise of shuffling feet as everyone started walking towards their respected dormitories, somewhat more calmly, although still with some nervous muttering. Terry and Josh followed Percy with the rest of the Gryffindors.
'How do you think a troll got in?' Terry heard Neville ask Ron.
'Not on its own,' Ron answered, 'trolls are really stupid.'
Terry suddenly realized that Ron was right. He has read lots of books about the magical world and the first thing any book said about trolls was about their stupidity, which meant that someone must have gotten it in, for some reason. He was trying to figure out who would want to do such a thing and why, when Josh suddenly grabbed his arm so tightly it hurt.
'Ouch! What?'
'What do you mean "what?" are you crazy? There's a troll in the castle!'
'So? don't tell me you are scared of it.'
Josh hit him on the head, 'you idiot,' he said, 'there's a troll in the castle and you expect me to just walk away?'
'Oh, oh,' Terry said as he suddenly realized what Josh meant, 'brother you are a genius!' he said excitedly, as they both sneaked away from the group of Gryffindors and started heading towards the dungeons.
They started running, turning round the now familiar corners. They were about to turn right, when Terry spotted something on their left and stopped so abruptly that Josh bumped into him. Josh was going to say something obviously not… pleasing for the ears, when he stopped himself as he saw the same shadow Terry spotted; it was obviously the troll, and it seemed to be dragging something heavy behind it. It also looked a bit bigger than Terry has imagined it to be.
'I think the troll has left the dungeons,' Terry said excitedly, 'come on.' he started walking towards it, but it was walking far too quickly with its large legs, so Terry and Josh had to jog to keep up, discussing different ways to kill a troll.
'Maybe we shouldn't kill it,' Josh suggested, 'we could just keep it as a pet.'
'Ha ha,' Terry said dryly, 'not funny.'
The troll suddenly stopped in front of an open doorway and peered inside stupidly. Then it went inside, dragging the club it was carrying heavily behind it. Terry and Josh ran faster, trying to keep up with it so that they could corner it, when they suddenly heard a scream which sounded suspiciously like Hermione Granger.
'Great,' Josh said, 'that stupid Granger has gotten there before us. I'm telling you - it's not fair, we were supposed to get the troll first.'
Terry glanced sideways at Josh to see if he was joking. Knowing him, he probably was, but he was also half serious about losing the troll. 'Err, I don't think Hermione went there to get the troll,' Terry commented dryly.
Josh slapped himself on the forehead, 'right,' he said, 'I'm so stupid, but it still doesn't solve our problem; she is gonna tell the teachers we came looking after the troll.'
Another scream sounded from the open doorway, which turned out to be a girls' toilets.
'She wouldn't,' Terry said, 'because she will be dead unless we go in there now.'
They looked at each other, then sprinted inside the room, just in time to see the troll swinging its club down on Hermione's head. Hermione ducked, rolling on the floor. She suddenly spotted them and mumbled something under her breath which Terry could not hear, but was, nevertheless, glad about it.
The troll pulled its club up again, ready for another swing, when Josh shouted towards it, 'Ohey! Pea - brain!' he picked a bit which was broken off the door and threw it at the troll's head. The troll did not even notice as he swung his club down, shuttering the sink Hermione was under as she ducked again.
Terry picked a piece of the broken sink, which was heavier than he anticipated, and threw it as hard as he could at the troll's head. It connected with a 'thud', like a brick hitting a wall. The troll shook its head stupidly, as if to try to clear it, and turned its massive head towards Terry and Josh, noticing them for the first time. It had two big, brown eyes, which were almost completely covered by its thick eyebrows. Its head was bald with only a few hairs sticking out at odd angles.
'Oh, finally,' Josh really did sound relieved, 'I thought it was never gonna notice us.'
They both got their wands out and started firing spells, which all connected with the troll, but had no impact. The troll started heavily towards them. They both backed away, still firing spells, which had absolutely no effect on it.
Terry looked sideways at Josh, 'any more bright ideas?'
Josh nodded his head, sweating, but not looking away from the troll, 'one. Contact fighting, but, somehow, I don't think that's gonna work.'
'Two hundred points for figuring that out,' Terry said dryly, 'I can't believe you actually managed to think about it.'
Terry did not get a chance to say anything else as the club was swung down towards his head. From this close, Terry suddenly realized that the club was much bigger than it looked, which made it impossible to duck from such a close range. Instead, he did what instinct told him to do and put his hands forwards to block the club. He managed to catch it, but the only problem was that it was lifted up, which meant that Terry was lifted up with it.
'Whoa,' Terry gasped as the club was raised over the troll's head. He lost his grip and started to fall down, flailing his arms around as he tried to hold on to something. Fortunately, he managed to grip something. Unfortunately, that something was the troll's head, and Terry found himself sitting on the troll's massive shoulders.
The troll seemed annoyed as he reached its hand back, trying to hit Terry. Terry moved as much of his body as he could to the left, ducking the troll's hand. The troll only managed to hit itself on the head. It groaned, somehow realizing with its small brain that hitting Terry was not going to work. Instead, it took hold of Terry's ankle and held him upside-down with one huge hand and Terry found himself looking at the world from a very interesting angle with his hair standing on end as if it was electrocuted. Josh was looking at him, wide eyed, seemingly standing upside-down on the floor.
'Hey, you stupid creature, let me down, you son of a bitch!' Terry shouted, trying to wriggle free. Obviously, the troll did not understand what he said. It pulled the club back and swung it in Terry's direction.
Terry quickly ducked, then looked at Josh, 'stop standing there like an idiot!' he shouted, 'do something!'
Josh's wide-eyed look disappeared, to be replaced with a mischievous smirk, 'what do you expect me to do?' he asked innocently, 'you already know nothing works on it.'
'DO ANYTHING!' Terry shouted, ducking the club again.
Josh spoke fast, 'OK, let me think… since nothing works on the troll, we should try doing something to you, to make the troll release you. For example, we could try to cut off your leg - I know this really good spell-' Terry gave a choked cry which Josh ignored, 'or maybe we wouldn't actually need to use magic - remember when Mrs. Cole got Hart and started beating him? The bite he gave her was really effective. The way she shrieked… it was very fun to see, I wish I was the one to do it, but, anyway, I don't think this will work on the troll so what we could do…' he suddenly stopped talking as Terry started shouting;
'SHUT UP, JOSH, AND DO SOMETHING, BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T THAN I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE A BROTHER WHEN I GET DOWN THERE BECAUSE-' he ducked a swing of the club, 'I'M-' he ducked another swing, 'GONNA KILL HIM!!!' his head was starting to hurt as all the blood rushed to his head and his face was burning both from the blood rushing to his head and from the effort of shouting.
'OK, OK, chill down, bro,' Josh smirked, 'anyone who heard you would have thought that you were getting attacked by a troll,' then, seeing Terry's look, he thought for a moment, 'OK, relax, you told me to do anything - Wingardium Leviosa! What? You told me to do anything!' he added as Terry shot daggers at him with his eyes. He did not even have time to see the effects of the spell, but a moment later, his eyes widened as he realized that the troll's club got out of its hands and was hovering over its head.
'Huuuh?' the troll said stupidly, looking up at the club and releasing Terry's ankle without noticing.
Terry did a small flip in the air and landed on his feet beside Josh, 'thanks for nothing,' he muttered, holding his aching head with both hands and trying to keep his balance. He was feeling quite dizzy.
'Hey, it was no problem,' Josh said cheerfully, 'that's what brothers are for.' he made the club fall down on the troll's head. The club was probably heavier than it seemed because the troll started falling down. Terry and Josh hurried to get away as the troll fell down on the floor with a huge 'thud.' It had a big lump on top of its head where it was hit with the club.
'Sweet,' Terry commented, then shot Josh a dirty look, 'Too bad you didn't get hit - you would have deserved it.'
Before Josh could answer, Hermione came forward, brushing dust out of her robes, 'well done,' she said sarcastically, 'you would have gotten a first place in any competition for idiocy.'
For the second time in their lives, Terry and Josh looked at each other in disbelief as Hermione spoke; she did not even seem to realize that there was an unconscious troll in the room. She, however, ignored their looks and continued speaking as if she has swallowed a textbook, 'no spells work on a troll or other big magical creatures such as dragons or giants unless lots of people use a combination of spells at the same time or a very dark curse is used; the only thing that works on it is if you hit it in the eye as that is its most vulnerable spot.'
'Thanks for telling us now,' Josh said ironically, 'but I think we did fine by ourselves, thanks.'
Hermione shook her head, 'that was only luck; you wouldn't do as well next time.'
'Next time?' Terry asked before he could help himself.
'Next time,' Hermione confirmed, 'you are not as safe as other people here now that Dumbledore knows who you are. I am pretty sure he will be trying to kill you.'
Terry shook his head disbelievingly; was she actually suggesting that Dumbledore was trying to kill them??! 'you are insane,' he informed her, 'now, if you don't mind, me and Josh need to get out of here before the teachers arrive. Goodbye.'
But before he even finished the sentence, a large group of teachers stormed into the room, Mcgonagal at their lead. Shit. Now they were in sooo much trouble, all because of her.
As Mcgonagal took in the state of the room and the unconscious troll, she finally managed to choke out, 'w… what is the meaning of this? Explain yourselves right now, both of you!' she did not even look at Hermione, obviously. Hermione was the teachers' pet and teachers never thought she did anything wrong. Now that Terry thought about it, neither did the students - Hermione seemed to be doing a pretty damn good job.
'Well, what it is…' Terry stammered,
'We just…' Josh started, trying his own powers.
'It was my fault professor Mcgonagal,' Hermione interrupted. Yet again, she managed to surprise the boys, 'I read about trolls and I thought I could handle them.' she lowered her head and Terry could not help but be impressed at her acting skills, 'I can see now that I was wrong. If Terry and Josh hadn't come here to rescue me I'd… probably be dead.' she finished, hanging her head.
Mcgonagal looked just as surprised as Terry and Josh felt, 'I am very shocked, Mrs. Granger, very shocked. I never expected you to do something so foolish, twenty points will be taken from Gryffindor.' she turned to look at Terry and Josh, 'as for you two, gentlemen, five points…'
Terry lowered his head so that Mcgonagal could not see the smile that played on his lips. Seriously, the punishments here at Hogwarts were too light. Who wanted house points anyway? What could actually happen if a particular house did not win the house cup? His smile suddenly turned into a frown as he suddenly spotted something; Snape's leg was bleeding. There was a deep cut in his left leg and his trousers were torn at that place. Terry raised his head slightly and caught Snape's eye. Immediately, he felt a sharp pain in his scar, the same he had felt in Dumbledore's office, only less severe, but he tried not to show it. Snape frowned, then looked away, covering the cut with his robes.
'… will be awarded to Gryffindor for each of you.' Terry momentarily forgot about Snape as Mcgonagal said this. He faintly wondered why Mcgonagal would award them points, but quickly stopped thinking about it - house points were a pathetic attempt to make the students behave, in his opinion. 'now I want you all to return to your dormitories,' Mcgonagal continued, 'immediately!'
The three kids quickly shuffled out of the room before Mcgonagal could change her mind. As soon as they were out of earshot of the teachers, Josh turned to Hermione, 'what did you do that for?' he asked her. He did not sound grateful - only suspicious.
Hermione did not even look at him as she answered, 'I didn't do it out of the goodness of my heart, believe me,' she said, 'it's just that - I know that you are going to get into loads of trouble during your stay here - I can explain everything as soon as we get to somewhere quiet where we can talk privately.'
They continued walking in silence, neither Josh nor Terry wanting to say anything as they did not know if to take Hermione seriously or not. As they arrived at the spiraling staircase which led to the Gryffindor common room, the tension in the silence grew so great that Terry could almost feel it in the air. 'Come on,' Hermione urged them as she was walking much more quickly than they did and already reached the top of the staircase. Then she let out a small shriek as the staircase moved so abruptly that she almost fell down through the gap which formed where she was just standing a moment ago before she jumped back to avoid it.
'What's going on?' Terry asked.
'The staircases are moving in different directions at different times of the day,' Hermione explained, 'didn't you two listen to Dumbledore's speech on the first day?'
'No,' Terry and Josh said in unison. Hermione sighed.
'Whatever,' Terry said, 'lets get off now quickly before the staircase moves again.'
'It wouldn't,' Hermione said, 'at least not in at least three hours.' Terry and Josh both ignored her as they all climbed up the rest of the stairs, looking around them.
'Any idea where we are?' Josh asked, looking around him as Terry and Hermione did the same.
'I think… this is the third floor corridors. We are not supposed to be here - don't tell me - you didn't know that because you didn't listen to Dumbledore's speech.' Hermione said sarcastically.
'Hey, how did you know that?' Terry shot back ironically.
Josh, with his selective hearing, only caught one part of the conversation, 'we are not supposed to be here?' he asked, excited, 'does that mean that there is supposed to be another beast around here? Cool! Where do we start looking?'
'I'll be damned if I listen to one more word you say for the rest of your life,' Terry told Josh dryly, 'I can't believe I actually listened to you with the troll - we almost got killed,' he informed him. Hermione just shook her head.
Josh was about to answer when his eyes widened, 'it's Filche's cat,' he said. Terry and Hermione both looked around and spotted the same glowing green eyes Josh saw staring at them, 'run!'
They all turned around in the opposite direction and started running. Filche's cat, Mrs. Norris, was always with her owner, which meant that Filch must have been somewhere close by, and everyone knew about Filche's greatest habit - catching children out of bed at night, which was why he was always caught strolling the castle at night, patrolling the corridors. So far, Fred and George, Ron's twin brothers, had the greatest record of being caught by Filch.
They rounded a corridor to their right, then took the nearest left to try to confuse Filch and entered the first door they saw, shutting it quickly and leaning on the door, breathing heavily. Terry caught his breath pretty quickly and looked around him. They were in an old classroom, and they were not alone. Peeves, the school's poltergeist, was writing rude words on the blackboard and throwing the chalks he used into the bin, cackling madly. He looked around as they entered, and his smile broadened, 'Ooooooh! Ickle first years out of bed at night, and in the forbidden corridors! You are in sooo much trouble!'
Terry froze as he realized what Peeves was going to do, 'no Peeves, don't,' he hissed.
Peeves ignored him and shouted at the top of his lungs, 'students out of bed! Hey, Filch! There are students in the east corridor, in classroom number 311, you can come and get them!' then he cackled loudly.
'You are so dead,' Josh hissed at him.
Peeves, who was, in fact, dead, just laughed even more loudly. Terry opened the door, getting ready to run, Hermione following, when he realized that Josh was not following. He reached his hand inside the classroom and dragged Josh, who was banging his fists and swearing at Peeves, out. Josh finally had the sense to follow, but, unfortunately, Peeves was also following them and shouting loudly to attract Filche's attention.
Suddenly, they were faced with a dead end with only a small door to run into. Terry knew it was stupid, because as soon as Filch arrived he would know that this was where they were, but this was their best chance, so he walked towards the door and tried to open it. It was locked. He got his wand out, 'alo-homora,' he whispered. There was a small click and the door opened. They all shuffled inside, closing the door behind them and listening intently. Filch arrived there just a few seconds after they have closed the door as Terry could hear his voice.
'Were there students out of bed, Peeves?' Filche's voice asked.
'Ooooooh, yeah, first years out of bed, patrolling forbidden corridors!'
'Which way did they go in?' Filche's voice sounded urgent.
- 'Say please.'
- 'What?'
- 'Say please.'
- 'Stop it, Peeves! We both know you ain't got no manners, you're just trying to get on my nerves, aren't you? Where the hell did they go?'
- 'I won't say nothing till you don't say please.'
Terry vaguely wondered why Filch did not check in that classroom. It might have been because he thought that they could not open the locked door, or he might have somehow not spotted it.
- 'Peeves - I'm warning you…'
- 'Whass' the matter? You should be glad that I've changed for the better.'
There was a small pause, then Terry heard Filche's voice again, 'OK, please.' he said.
- 'Nothing!! I told you I won't say "nothing" if you don't say please! Ha ha ha…'
Peeve's laughter died away as he got away from the place. He must have hated Filch even more than he hated students. A few minutes later, Terry heard Filch swear and his footsteps got further and further away till they were not heard anymore.
'Phew!' Terry said, 'lucky that door's here. I wonder why it's locked, though.'
'It was locked,' Hermione corrected him.
'… and for a good reason,' came the delightful voice of Josh.
Uh-oh. It must have been something bad if Josh sounded happy. Terry turned around slowly and looked at the room they entered for the first time. The first thought that crossed his mind was oh, shit, not again. Inside was a dog. A huge dog. Three times the size of all three of them put together. And it was staring at them with six eyes, which were connected to three heads. Apparently, they were interrupting it's nap, and the only reason it did not tear them apart yet was because they have just woken it up and it was too surprised at being intruded so suddenly.
'Err, Josh?' Terry said dryly, 'I think we found your beast, but I'm not staying here to fight it as well. Let's get the hell outta here!'
He did not have to say it twice as Hermione already opened the door before he had a chance to finish the sentence. The dog finally seemed to realize what was going on and lunged its three heads towards the kids. They all climbed out of the door quickly, except for Josh, who was being dragged by Terry, and quickly tried to shut the door. They might have succeeded in doing that if Josh was not only pretending to help, but, as it was, the dog finally managed to open the door and stormed out, facing them with its three menacing heads.
They all got their wands out, including Hermione. 'way to go, Vlady,' Terry muttered, 'I really hope you are happy now.'
'Gee, thanks,' Josh answered, starting to fire spells at the dog.
Hermione looked exasperated, 'didn't you listen to what I told you a few minutes ago?' she asked Josh.
'I never listen to what you say, bitch,' Josh answered.
Hermione looked totally cool as she pointed her wand at the dog, and muttered a spell. The spell hit the dog in the eye and it yowled in pain, 'see? Just firing spells wouldn't help you. Its skin is too tough - aim at the eye.' then she looked at Josh, 'I can't say that you're a son of a bitch because your mum was a total angel, although that does not mean that you can't be a dog - mutations occur every day.'
Terry laughed. She managed to surprise him yet again. He did realize that she was more different than she looked, but he had no idea that she could swear like that. If they were to hang out together, he knew that things were going to always be interesting between her and Josh. Josh shot daggers at him as he laughed, but Terry just shrugged and aimed a spell at one of the dog's eyes. It worked like magic; the yowl of pain the dog gave was very satisfying. 'hey, why don't you try it yourself, Vlady?' he asked Josh, who was sulking. Josh glared at him, but he had no other choice but to listen to him because Terry and Hermione could not overpower the dog on their own.
The noise they were making was probably too great because a few minutes later they heard footsteps approaching them. This time, however, they were not able to run away because they were all locked in combat with the giant three headed dog, so that when Filch finally arrived, he had the shock of his life as he found the three eleven year old kids fighting the monster.
'What the…' he started, then changed in mid-sentence as he remembered that he was not allowed to swear in front of students, 'what's going on?'
Not a very clever question, Terry noted to himself, but all he said aloud was, 'this thing is attacking us.'
'Yeah,' Josh added. He must have been getting tired because he then said, 'could you please help us?'
'Oh, right,' Filch said, reaching his hand inside his robes and producing…a flute? He put the flute to his mouth and started playing it. Terry was too concerned about his sanity to laugh about it. To his surprise, however, the dog suddenly slumped onto the floor, unconscious.
'Hey, I never knew music could kill dogs,' Josh commented, 'or maybe it just depends on how bad the music is.'
The dog gave a huge snore. 'It's not dead, it's sleeping,' Filch sneered, 'you, however, are going to be happy if you get to sleep tonight.' he smiled evilly, 'follow me.'
The three kids looked at each other, then followed Filch reluctantly, 'you are in really big trouble,' Filch said delightedly, 'if it was up to me, I would have hung all three of you in the dungeon by your ankles, just like the good old days. Ahh, how I miss those days… the screams at night… music to my ears,' he had a dreamy expression on his face as he led them on through the castle, but that expression suddenly disappeared, 'unfortunately, that punishment has been banned, but, don't worry, I'm pretty sure the headmaster will find a suitable alternative.'
Terry suddenly caught Hermione's eye. She looked worried. He raised his eyebrows at her, and she shook her head slowly, 'what is it?' Terry whispered so that Filch could not hear them. Josh's eyes shot up.
Hermione shook her head again, 'don't you think it's a bit weird?' she whispered back, 'two monsters at the same day? I'm telling you - Dumbledore is trying to kill you. I just hope everything will be OK once we get to his office. I wanted to tell you something today, but I didn't get the chance to. I'm…really sorry. I hope I'll get a chance to tell you tomorrow.'
Josh snorted, 'you're talking as if we're gonna die.'
'Don't be ridiculous,' Hermione snapped, 'Dumbledore is very precautious - he wouldn't do something which will leave evidence against him. He will only try to kill you in indirect ways.'
'You are crazy,' Josh informed her.
'If I'm crazy then I don't have any words to describe your mental condition,' Hermione answered heatedly.
It would have gone on if they were not being led to Dumbledore's office in the middle of the night, 'what's going on there? What are you whispering about?' Filch asked. Hermione and Josh immediately fell silent and continued in this way until they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office. 'sherbet lemon,' Filch said to the gargoyle, which leapt aside in response. Terry made a mental note to remember this password, just in case.
They all climbed up the spiraling staircase. When they reached the top, Filch knocked on the door. 'Come in,' Dumbledore's voice sounded from the inside.
Filch looked delighted as he pushed the door open and practically shoved the three kids inside. Terry looked around and was not surprised to find that all of the teachers who have seen them with the troll were present inside. Dumbledore, however, looked very surprised to see them. Filch took this opportunity to announce theatrically, 'headmaster,' he said, 'I found those three children in the forbidden grounds, fighting Floppy,' he seemed to be fighting himself, but he finally could not take control of himself as he added, 'what punishment do you suggest? Could we use the dungeons just this once?'
Floppy? Was that the dog's name, or what? Terry tried not to snigger. Dumbledore, however, looked very serious, 'I think this punishment would be very suitable, after what they did today, but, unfortunately, this punishment has been banned, as you probably know.'
'Yes headmaster,' Filch looked genuinely disappointed.
Dumbledore turned to look at the kids, 'and what, may I ask, were you doing in the forbidden grounds at this hour of the night? Was one troll not enough to satisfy your craving for adventures?' he asked, looking at them severely. Terry thought that he looked a bit like Mcgonagal in this way, which was a bit scary. When all of them stayed quite, Dumbledore turned to Filch again, 'what have you done with Floppy?' he asked him.
Filch blanched, 'I…I left him where he was,' he said apologetically.
'Very well,' Dumbledore said, 'you can go now, I can deal with the rest myself.' Filch shuffled out of the door. 'Minerva?' Dumbledore turned to Mcgonagal, 'would you be kind enough as to return Floppy back to the room?'
'Certainly, headmaster,' Mcgonagal answered, leaving the office as well.
Dumbledore turned to the rest of the teachers, 'the meeting is over, you can all go as well.'
All ten of the remaining teachers walked towards the door at the same time. Snape was the last one to leave, when Dumbledore stopped him, 'Severus, I'd like you to stay here.' Snape frowned in confusion, but did as he was told. 'Now,' Dumbledore said, 'which of you will be kind enough to tell me why you decided to go to the third floor corridor in the middle of the night?'
Terry looked at Josh and Hermione; Josh looked lost for words and Hermione resumed her usual act. She looked like she was going to burst into tears any second, and Terry would have believed it if he did not know any better. He suddenly realized that it was him who was going to do the explaining. Some quick thinking told him that the best thing to do was to tell the truth, except for the bits with Josh's idiocy.
'Well,' Terry started, 'after we left the troll, we wanted to go straight back to our dormitories, but the staircase changed and brought us to the third floor corridor. Then we saw Filche's cat and panicked, so we started running and accidentally got into that room where you keep the dog. I'm sorry if we caused any damage to it if it was valuable, or something…' Terry finished, looking at Hermione. He was not sure, but he thought she gave him a slight nod of approval without lifting her head up.
Dumbledore sighed, 'I am sorry, but I really don't know if to believe you or not, you see, your father was a great troublemaker himself when he attended this school.'
Snape spoke for the first time, 'I thought he was an orphan?' it was part question part statement and Terry found himself getting annoyed at the way Snape spoke a if he was not there.
'Oh, he definitely is,' Dumbledore answered, 'in fact, this is why I brought you here, I thought you had a right to know - these two boys are Lilly and James' kids.'
For some reason, Snape's lip curved, but Terry did not think much about it as hot white anger surged through his body, 'I thought you told us you were not going to tell anyone,' he hissed.
Josh spoke at the same time as Terry did, 'you son of a bitch!' it seemed to get out of his mouth without him having control over it. Dumbledore, however, either ignored it, or he did not hear it because Terry and Josh spoke at the same time. Any other time, Terry would have hoped it was the latter, but right now he was too angry to care.
What angered Terry even more, was the light tone which Dumbledore used next as he answered, 'I'm really sorry, it's just that, professor Snape and your father used to be very good friends when they used to attend this school. I just thought he had a right to know.' for some reason, Terry thought that he was lying, a thought which was confirmed by the low hiss Snape gave.
'The Potters only had one son,' he said. Terry's anger grew further as Snape said that. Why was he pushing his nose into other people's business?
'Oh, no,' Dumbledore answered calmly, 'these two boys are twins. Their parents decided to hide the fact that they had two sons because they did not want Voldemort to go after the two of them.'
Josh gave a low hiss surprisingly similar to Snape's, 'I think you should stop here,' he advised Dumbledore, 'I really don't appreciate people discussing my history.'
Dumbledore looked very uncomfortable. Or was it an act? Terry could not tell. 'Look, as I told you already, I'm really sorry for doing what I did,' Dumbledore said, 'I know that I shouldn't have told anyone without your permission and I beg forgiveness, but for now, I think you can go to your beds. You will not receive any punishment whatsoever.'
Terry, however, was not prepared to let it go that easily. Hermione knew who they were, but Dumbledore did not know that, 'what about Hermione? You didn't seem to care that she heard.'
Dumbledore stayed calm, 'again, I am very sorry about it. I did not realize that she was here. But she wouldn't tell anyone, will you, Mrs. Granger?' Hermione nodded her head, 'good,' Dumbledore said, as if the matter was solved.
But it seemed that Terry was not the only one not satisfied about Dumbledore's answers, 'I am really very sorry as well,' Josh said ironically, 'but I'm not prepared to leave until you give me some answers. What were two monsters doing in the castle? Surely, you should have taken your students safety into consideration. Take me, for example,' he put on the most innocent look he could muster, 'if I knew what was lurking around these corridors, ahem, I wouldn't have come to Hogwarts.'
This time, Dumbledore looked annoyed for the first time ever. Well, Terry knew that there was a first time to everything, and something that big could only be triggered by Josh, who had a special cunning ability to get on people's nerves, 'I do not expect students to understand the actions I take for this school. If you have any problems with the way this school is ran you are more than welcome to leave.'
Immediately startled by this comment, Terry looked up to see what Josh's reaction would be. Terry never told Josh, but he did have some thoughts about leaving Hogwarts for the past few days. After all, he was much ahead of the rest of the students, and they were keeping him back, and he would learn much faster on his own. Now that he knew everything there was to know about himself, he did not know what the point of staying at Hogwarts was.
His thoughts now strayed to what Hermione told him and Josh. He was not sure that what she said was true; Dumbledore seemed pretty harmless. Then again, looks could be deceiving. He decided that the chances of the things Hermione had told them being true were fifty-fifty, which was too much, in his opinion. Having a psychopath for a headmaster was definitely a bad thing.
Terry tried to generate what he was thinking on to Josh with his look. Josh looked at him, frowning, but that expression disappeared quickly as Josh's face suddenly cleared up and he looked at Terry unbelievingly. Josh stared at him for a few seconds, then he nodded his head very slowly. Terry smiled at him. So it was settled. They were going to leave Hogwarts.
'OK,' he told Dumbledore, 'we'll go and get our bags. We're ready to leave.'
I know, this is the worst ending I did to a chapter so far. Can't wait till the next chapter- you are going to find out about Hermione and maybe Dumbledore and Dean!