EDIT: 1/30/2012

So, I think only one scene is changed to McGonagall's POV and lots of grammar mistakes are fixed. Please don't take my author notes as example. ;P

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Anything but My OC's

Chapter Five; Brooms, Duels and Three Headed Dogs…

Riley was not in a hurry to get to breakfast the next morning. She knew when she got down there; she would get disappointed letters from Andy and Moony. She hated disappointing Remus, but she thought she was entirely justified in yelling at Snape. I mean, she was just standing up for her friends, so that should count for something right?

So Riley trudged slowly to the Great Hall and because she just has the best luck ever (note the sarcasm), as soon as she sat down the mail came.

Batman flew dutifully down to his owner and promptly tripped over her glass and landed right into her bowl of cereal.

"Bloody hell," Ron said wiping milk off his face, having been splashed when Batman landed. "That birds worse the Errol."

"Sorry Ron, I don't even think Batman is worse than Errol." Harry laughed as he pointed to said owl. Poor Errol was trying to untangle himself from some fourth year girl's hair.

Ron jumped up to help, while Riley and Harry laughed.

Riley grabbed her letters when Batman started to nip her fingers. The first was written in a narrow cursive, while the other was the familiar neat and loopy. Riley opened the one from Andy first;

Riley Eliza Anastasia Selena Langley, Riley flinched at the use of her full name, her mother was insane for giving her so many.

Am I reading this letter from Hogwarts right? You got detention already for YELLING at a TEACHER? You're barely a week into school and already you're getting detention! I am extremely disappointed in you. I better not get another letter like this!

Other than that we all miss you a lot sweetheart! Especially Dora, she misses her partner in crime.

Love you lot's,

Aunt Andy

She's said it many times in her relatively short life and she'll say it once more; Andromeda. Is. insane.

Riley carefully opened the next one, expecting to be given the famous Moony guilt trip speech; he's really good at those. So she was surprised when she saw;

Dear Red,

Congratulations! If you keep this up you may just beat my record! In third year I got detention on the second day of school, your dad got it an hour into the feast in fifth year. But I shouldn't be saying that because as we speak Andromeda is yelling at me for encouraging you. She can be quite scary when she wants to be. So since I'd rather like to not be yelled at again, I have to say this;

I'm very disappointed in you. You shouldn't be yelling at teachers and you need to respect all your teachers. Yes, even Professor Snape. I know I told you about how he used to try to get my friends and me in trouble, but that is no reason not to respect him now. We were all kids back then and it shouldn't affect you view on him now. Anyways, I have to go now, but I would like to hear all about how you liked your classes and everything.

Love,

Moony

Riley laughed; Remus could be so unpredictable sometimes. She figured it just went along with being a mad genius, as she so affectionately called him.

Riley shoved the letters into her bag and headed off to class with Ron and Harry feeling considerably happier.

~{}~

Riley had never believed she could possibly hate everything about a person, but that was before she'd met Draco Malfoy. Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan.

Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday - and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted; to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy." He had been talking about learning to fly since Ron told him about Quidditch.

"Well, if that's what you've always wanted, then this will be one special day right?" Riley couldn't stop herself and earned a glare and a roll of the eyes for her effort.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Ron said reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping muggles in helicopters (it was surprising he even knew what those were, really).

He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.

Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly, well except Riley. She liked the sport, but she found that there are many more interesting topics to talk about then sports.

Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Riley personally thought soccer was extremely boring to watch but fun to play.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Kind of like Riley, whose godfather always said she had enough problems on the ground. Harry told her that he felt they'd had good reason, because Neville and Riley managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book - not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things - this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red - oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "You've forgotten something..."

"Seems pretty useless to me if it only tells you forgot something, but not what you forgot." Riley commented too much agreement.

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Harry, Ron and Riley jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"Right and I am a princess." Riley mumbled as she sat back down.

~{}~

At three-thirty that afternoon, Riley and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Ron, Harry and Riley had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, that was almost spiky and yellow eyes like a hawk. Riley thought she looked kind of bad-arse.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Riley glanced down at her broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say `Up!"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.

Riley's broom jumped to her hand after the second try. She was still a bit apprehensive about flying something that barley looked like it could carry you. It also didn't help that it looked like it could give you one nasty wedgie.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips.

The trio was delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three - two -"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty feet. Riley saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and - WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay face down on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," they heard her mutter. "Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face? The great lump." The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom." said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought that you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

"Look who's talking Parkinson, Malfoy's a skinny, rat faced ferret, and you like him." Riley snapped. Pansy's face went eight shades of red.

Malfoy sneered. "Watch your mouth when talking to your superiors, Langley."

"You can't honestly mean yourself?" Riley scoffed.

Malfoy whipped out his wand at the same time Riley, Ron and Harry did.

"Go ahead. I dare you." Riley said glaring at the prat.

He seemed to realize he was out numbered as he saw that none of his housemates were going to help him. So he lowered his wand and instead glared at the three Gryffindors.

"Look!" Malfoy said suddenly, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him." The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry said quietly. Everyone was quite as they watched fight continue.

Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find - how about - up a tree."

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!" Harry grabbed his broom.

"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move - you'll get us all into trouble." Harry ignored her.

Instead He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him. He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground, an admiring whoop from Ron and heard Riley yell;

"Yeah, get him Potter! Knock him off his broom!"

He laughed and turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.

"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"

"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.

Riley watched below in awe as Harry leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. Riley heard a few people around her clapping.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.

The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.

"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.

Riley watched, as though in slow motion, as Harry leaned forward and went into a steep dive, racing the ball – some of the girl's screamed making Riley flinch. She watched as Harry stretched out his hand – a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.

"HARRY POTTER!" Riley turned around and there was Professor McGonagall running toward them. Harry got to his feet, looking like he just lost his best friend.

"Never – in all my time at Hogwarts –"

Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how dare you – might have broken your neck –"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor –"

"Be quiet, Miss Langley"

"But Malfoy -"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now." Riley caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as Harry left, walking hunched over Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle.

"Well that was eventful…" Riley said fighting a grin.

Ron looked at her like she was crazy. "Aren't you worried he'll be expelled?"

"I told him not to do that." Said Hermione in a I'm-a-stiff-know-it-all-and-so-I'm-going-to-say-I-told-you-so voice.

"He won't be expelled for something as silly as this. He'll probably have a few detentions though." Riley said, ignoring Hermione's comment. "Want to play Exploding Snap while we wait?"

Ron shook his head at her but joined her none the less. About an hour, ten games and a couple of singed eyebrows later Madame Hooch came back and sent them all to dinner.

"You're joking." They were In the Great Hall. Harry had just finished telling Ron and Riley what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Apparently, she had taken him to see the captain of the Quidditch team and made him seeker.

Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.

"Told you he wouldn't get expelled." Riley said happily. But Ron just waved her off.

"Seeker." he said. "But first years never – you must be the youngest house player in about—"

"A century," said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth. "Wood told me."

Ron was so amazed, so impressed; he just sat and gaped at Harry. Riley just laughed at the look on his face.

"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret." Fred and George Weasley (or as Riley called them Thing 1 and Thing 2) had come into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.

"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too – Beaters."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year." said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Anyway, we've got to go; Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

Riley gaped. "Wait. Can I come?"

George turned around and smiled mischievously. "But of course milady."

Riley grinned back. "Right, see you guys in the common room." She said to Ron and Harry as she shoved the last bit of her food in her mouth and ran after the twins.

Ron looked at Harry with worry. "Why do I have a bad feeling about those three hanging out?"

"Because we may never see peace again?" suggested Harry as he shrugged.

~{}~

"So the next day, Filch comes running into the great hall (high heels, feather boa and all) goes straight to the headmaster and stands there for a couple of minutes, looks like he's fighting with himself, his face goes all red and finally he says 'does this dress make me look fat?' I don't think I've ever laughed so hard." said Fred as Riley, George, and Lee roared with laughter.

Fred, George and Lee were showing Riley around the castle, telling her where the best short cuts and the best places to hide when running from Filch and Mrs. Norris were. They had just covered the west side and were heading to the kitchens for a snack.

"You have to teach me those charms!" Riley exclaimed with an almost evil grin on her face "Just think what we could do to Malfoy or even better Snape!"

"Ah, Fred I think we found ourselves an apprentice." said George thoughtfully.

"Hum… I quite agree." said Fred.

"First, I think she should find a secret passage way without our help." said Lee.

"Oh, that's easy." said Riley waving her hand. "There's that big one behind the mirror on the fourth floor, you know the one I'm sure, yeah?"

Fred, George and Lee smiled. This was going to be fun.

As they walked down the stone steps towards the kitchens, Riley suddenly got an idea. She turned to the boys grinning like crazy.

"I've got a surprise for you guys that you're going to absolutely love"

Fred raised his eyebrows at her, "Really? And what might that be?"

Riley just smiled mysteriously and took off for the common room, leaving behind three very confused boys.

~{}~

"No way!"

"Where did you get this?"

"How did you get this? I thought they stopped selling it!"

The three pranksters were practically jumping with excitement at the book Riley just showed them. Yes, a book. It just so happened that this book was called; Best Jinxes and Hexes of the Century.

Riley grinned. "My godfather got it for me for my birthday. I haven't had the chance to try any out yet… so I was thinking…"

"Yes?" said Lee almost scared of the look she was giving them.

"Well… I just happened to notice there are a lot of students that are just wondering around, probably very bored… and I thought that maybe we could entertain them."

The boys grinned evilly.

"This, Riley… is the start of a beautiful friendship." said Fred putting his arm around her shoulders.

And thus it started. Suddenly students were pouring into the hospital wing, some had different colored skin, some were sprouting feathers and clucking and some gained different colored polka-dots every time they said a certain word, and some of the more unfortunate ones had suddenly grown tails and donkey ears, only able to speak in brays.

No one noticed the poorly stifled laughter coming from a little alcove behind the suit of armor in the entrance hall.

But even though it seemed that the four had no trouble with using any of the charms in the book. This was not the case. In one unfortunate incident, Riley tried to cast a charm to make a Hufflepuff fifth year only speak in haikus, only for it to go horribly wrong by ricocheting (ironically off their prefect badge) and hitting her instead.

At first all she noticed was a faint tingling go through her body. Then she spotted the sleek, shiny, ebony hair flowing down her shoulder.

"My hair!" she cried out in horror.

The boys gaped at her. She looked down and saw that her skin was also tan and she had… breasts? Still in her shocked state she grabbed them, and then looked up at the boys staring at her in shock.

"These I can deal with, but my hair is ruined!" she cried sorrowfully. That seemed to be the breaking point for the boys, because they burst into laughter not stopping for a good five minutes, while Riley whimpered "my hair, my wonderful, wild hair!"

After they calmed down enough to think, they started trying to put her back. An hour later with no results, had them deciding it was hopeless and that they needed help.

~{}~

Minerva McGonagall was having a lovely night. She was sitting at her desk 'grading' papers and sipping her favorite tea. (Really, she was reading one of her favorite books.) She was sure nothing could ruin such a nice evening.

She really should have known better then to think something like that, because just then, a knock sounded on the door. Sighing, she placed her book down and opened the door. There she saw an odd sight.

The Weasley twins and their best friend Lee Jordan, were trying to hold in there laughter while another girl, Minerva didn't recognize, was practically in tears.

Minerva sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Do I want to know?"

The twins automatically pointed to Riley and said; "she did it!"

This just caused Lee to fall to the ground laughing.

Minerva sighed again and got them to explain exactly what was wrong. Shaking her head in slight amazement at how badly the spell went wrong, Minerva put Riley right and sent them off with a warning.

They're going to be the death of me. She thought as she watched the group leave her office and heard Riley say with a pout;

"She didn't have to make my chest flat again… I liked having breasts." while the others just laughed at her.

For the fourth time in five minutes, poor Professor McGonagall sighed again and shut the door.

~{}~

"Hey, I just noticed something." Lee said as they walked back to the Gryffindor common room.

"What's that?"

"Why do they call something so great boobies?"

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "It doesn't seem right to be so negative."

"So what should we call them?" Riley asked.

"Hooraybies?" asked George.

"Nah that sounds like a disease." said Lee thoughtfully.

"How about yaybies?" Fred asked.

"Sounds good to me." Riley agreed as she laughed.

Thus started a tradition that would go on for ages with no one really understanding how or why just that it got a girls stamp of approval.

~{}~

When Riley finally got back to the common room, she was in a wonderful mood. She, the twins and Lee had made lots of mayhem and McGonagall already named Riley as the 'Bane of Her Existence'. So Riley was proud to say that day had been very successful.

She really didn't think anything could ruin her mood.

She really should learn not to jinx stuff like that.

She had walked over to sit with Harry and Ron, and immediately they told her about the dual that Malfoy had challenged them too. It's not that she wasn't all for Harry kicking Malfoy's butt in a dual, it's just he didn't know enough spells. The worst he could do was send sparks at Malfoy and after hearing those stories about Lucius Malfoy… who knew what curses his son would know.

All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day. (Though admittedly Riley was excited to go watch a dual, no matter how feeble) Ron and Riley had spent the rest of the evening giving Harry advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them." And "if nothing happens, forget your wand and punch him in the nose."

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Riley was excited to be sneaking through the castle at night. It was going to help her on her quest to learn all of Hogwarts secrets.

"Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "We'd better go."

They went to their separate dorms and pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept back into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them,

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry." A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.

"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy – he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this." Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering. Riley was berating herself for not noticing Hermione wasn't in their dorm.

"Come on," Harry said to Ron and Riley. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.

Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily though. She followed Riley through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor? Do you only care about yourselves? I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go. Away."

"All right, but I warned you. You just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so –" But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.

"That's your problem." said Ron. "We've got to 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.

"You are not."

"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, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."

"You've got some nerve –" said Ron loudly. Riley just rolled her eyes, sometime Hermione really got on her nerves.

"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something." It was a sort of snuffling.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.

It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours; I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed." Poor Neville, He's got worse luck then me, thought Riley.

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now; the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm?" said Harry.

"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Good - well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"

"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

"Ah, Neville don't worry about the Bloody Baron. I've heard he's really a softie." Riley said. She liked Neville, he was a good friend. He just had some confidence issues.

Neville smiled weakly at her, but still shook his head and followed.

Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies, Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.

They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn they expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry and Riley took out their wands in case Malfoy and his cronies came in and started shoot off curses. The minutes crept by.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out." Ron whispered. All the sudden a horrible thought struck Riley; what if this was a set up?

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak -and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch speaking 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.

Riley couldn't believe she didn't see this coming, but still couldn't help but find this fun. Neville's robes had barely whipped round 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 armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer.

Riley was cursing Fred and George in her head for not telling her where the short cuts were in this part of the castle. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run -he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.

The clanging and crashing were 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 – they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, 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've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering and Riley was laughing hysterically while trying to catch her breath.

"I – told –you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I – told – you."

"Ha-ha. Hermione now's not really the time for I told you so's. Ha-ha." Riley said trying to stifle her laughter. "That was fun!" she got glares for that.

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

"No Hermione, we didn't know that. We just thought it was a crazy coincidence." Riley said dripping with sarcasm. Hermione glared at her.

"Let's go." Harry said, but sadly it wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone 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 and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves – please – you'll get us thrown out." Harry begged.

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."

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," snapped Ron.

"No!" Riley yelled as Ron took a swipe at Peeves, he made 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 at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

"Well it's your own stupid fault! Who tries to hit Peeves when you're trying to get away? Honestly!" Riley rolled her eyes at Ron.

"Shut up, both of you." hissed Harry. They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves' 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.'"

"Don't mess with me, 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! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked, I think we'll be okay." Harry whispered.

"Um… Harry?" Riley asked staring fixedly at something in front of them.

"What?" Harry turned around - and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment Riley thought he went into shock. That this was one thing too much, on top of everything that had happened so far, because they weren't in just any corridor, but 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. But that wasn't even the worst part, no the worst part was it had three heads. Three pairs of rolling mad eyes, three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction and three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Riley knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but that in any moment, it would get over that and decide it wants to have a midnight snack.

Harry groped for the doorknob – between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.

Riley was too busy fighting between awe at what they found and horror at being trapped in a room with it. She figured she should probably distract it, as it was starting to growl menacingly. So she stuck her hands out in a placating way and said in a quivering whisper; "Nice three headed doggy…"

Finally Harry found the knob and they fell backward out the door – Harry slammed it shut, and they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared – all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that giant of a dog. They didn't stop 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 forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.

It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Riley chuckled. Her mind was racing, knowing there had to be a reason a dog like that would be in the castle. Moony always told her she was too nosy for her own good.

Unfortunately Hermione had got both 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. Riley burst into giggles again. She couldn't help it. She just found the whole thing hilarious."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.

"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you"

"I think someone needs to tell her, her priorities are a bit messed up" Riley said still giggling. The boys nodded.

A minute later Neville followed Hermione's example and went to bed. The three of them sat in silence for awhile then Ron turned to Riley.

"'Nice doggy?' really?" he said incredulously. It was quite for a second… then the three burst into laughter and didn't stop for a good ten minutes.

Later on Riley was lying in bed staring at nothing, going over everything that happened today… wondering what the dog was guarding…

If every day here was going to be like that… she thought with a smile. Well at least I won't be bored.

~{}~

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