Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 8

"We should probably go, it's almost midnight," I said looking over at the clock in the common room.

Harry, Ron, and I went to walk out of the common, but heard someone following us.

"I'm coming with you," Hermione Granger announced walking into the common room from the girls' dormitories.

We all stopped and looked at her.

"Uh...no you're not," Ron said.

"You all don't know what you are doing and you're goin to get Gryffindor in trouble!" Hermione said. "You've already lost enough points for us and at the rate you're going you're going to make Gryffindor lose and-"

"Hermione!" I cut her off. "If we let you come with us will you please shut up?"

She paused for a moment and then nodded.

Ron groaned as all four of us went to leave the common room. However, we were stopped when we saw someone else.

"I thought no one was going to come!" Neville said as he scrambled up and smiled at us. "Wait...what are you all up to?"

"Um...you know...we wanted to get some...uh...cheese from the kitchen," I said.

"Cheese?" Neville asked raising his eyebrows.

"Malfoy and Harry are going to have a duel in the trophy room," Hermione said.

"Hermione!" Ron whisper-yelled.

"I want to come!" Neville told us.

"Let's just go," I said motioning for Neville to join with us.

We had to be extra quite because it was against the rules to be out bed after hours in the first place. It took us a few minutes to get to the trophy room, but we managed to get there without making any noise. However, when we got there, the room was empty and we were a little late.

"Where's Malfoy?" Hermione whispered.

"No idea," Harry whispered back.

We stood there for a few minutes silently when we heard a noise from the opposite hallway.

"We have to catch the children out of bed, Mrs. Norris...said they'd be in the trophy room, he did," a voice said.

"Filtch," Ron said.

"What are we gonna do?" Neville said.

"Run!" I said.

"There they are!" Filtch shouted.

"NOW!" I yelled.

We all turned around, running at full speed through the hallways. We turned every corner and ran up several different staircases and through and through a door until we ran into a dead end: the door was locked.

"It's locked!" Ron said, rattling the handle on the door.

"Move over!" Hermione said pushing Ron to the side.

She pulled her wand out of her pocket and tapped onto the handle and said, "Alohomora!"

The door unlocked and opened up. We quickly piled into the room as we heard

Filtch approaching. When the door was closed, we all tried to listen to what was happening on the other side.

"Must of gotten away, Mrs. Norris," Filtch said to his cat. "I'll catch 'em next time."

We stood there for a minute, making sure he left. I felt someone pulling on my shirt behind me.

"What is it Neville?" I asked, still listening for Filtch.

"L-l-look!" he whimpered.

I turned around to see what he was talking about, as did everyone else. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw. Behind us, in the small room, stood a

gigantic three-headed dog that was growling at us. We paused for a moment and then started screaming. The giant dog growled loudly and lunged for us. We scrambled out of the door and, using our combined weight, managed to close and lock the door. Even though the door behind us was shut, we all sprinted back to the Gryffindor Tower with extreme speed. When we got into the common room, we finally stopped.

"What was that?" Neville asked.

"Never mind what it was!" Hermione said. "Did you see what was under its feet?"

"No Hermione, I was focused on the fact that thing thing had THREE heads! Maybe you noticed that!" Ron whisper-yelled.

"There was a door!" Hermione said, completely ignoring Ron. "It was guarding something!"

We all looked around at each other, thinking about what the thing could possibly be guarding.

"Now if you all don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you all come up with another clever idea to get us killed - or worse, expelled," Hermione said as she walked into the girls dormitories.

"She needs to sort out her priorities..." Ron muttered.

"Is that a Nimbus Two Thousand?" Ron shouted at breakfast the following morning.

"That's what it says on the top," I said reading it. "Is that a good one?"

"You can't be serious, Potter," Fred said as he walked over to the table.

"That's the best broom that there is," George said.

"Who gave it to you?" Fred asked Harry.

"I'm not sure..." Harry said looking for a note.

"Harry," I said pointing up to Professor McGonagall at the teacher's table, who smiled at us when we caught her eye.

"So, when are you going to start training?" Fred asked.

"Tonight," Harry said.

"Are you two on the team?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're the Beaters on the team," George said.

"What do they do?" I asked.

"They just make sure that the other player's brains stay in their heads," George said grabbing a piece of toast and shoving it into his mouth.

"Sounds fun," I said.

"You're supposed to stir the potion three time clockwise, Longbottom, not counterclockwise," Snape muttered as he checked my neighbor's work.

So far, almost every Gryffindor in the class has failed the potion we were making today - including Harry, Ron, and Neville. Now, the professor stood over my cauldron, examining my work.

He stood in front of the potion for a while, looking closely at it. Every so often, he would glance up at me and back down at the potion.

"Well done..." Snape murmured and said something under his breath.

"What was that?" I asked.

He looked at me, for the first time, right into my eyes. For a moment, I saw something more than just his dark eyes. He looked sad. His eyes were shining and his face dropped. He normally looked so angry, but something changed when our eyes met, I just didn't understand what...

"Nothing..." he whispered and slowly walked over to the next table, looking lost in thought.

When everyone's potion had been graded, Snape took his place in front of the room once again.

"You all did...dreadful," Snape said as he paced through the front of the class. "Only two of you managed to complete the potion without a single error: Hermione

Granger and...Emily Potter. Considering that the rest of you do not understand the proper way to create this potion, I expect you all to write an essay explaining what you did wrong and how you should actually make this potion without having it explode," he glared at Neville and Seamus.

"However, the two people that made this potion correctly are exempt from this assignment..." he finished.

"You just wave your wand and say 'Wingardium Leviosa.'" Professor Flitwick instructed. "Remember swish and flick!"

We all had feathers sitting in front of us and we were supposed to make the levitate.

So far, no one had been able to make their feathers move, including Harry and me.

"Wingardrium leviosaaa," Ron said stabbing his feather repeatedly.

"No, no, no!" Hermione said. "You're doing it wrong. It's pronounced Wingardium Leviosa, you have to say it right."

"Well if you're so brilliant, why don't you do it!" Ron said.

"Fine," Hermione said picking up her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather slowly began to float up into the air.

"Congratulations Ms. Granger!" Professor Flitwick clapped.

"Well, aren't you just talented," Ron muttered.

If Hermione had heard him, she didn't show it, she just watched her feather.

"It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends!" Ron said after class. "She's

always showing off!"

Suddenly I saw a person with big, bushy hair push past Ron, walking fast.

Hope you liked it! I know it's a little late, sorry! Tell me what you think!