Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own.
After dinner the four of them sat nervously apart in the common room. No one really bothered them; most were too upset with Harry and Phoebe still. Serena had Monet on her lap, petting him and staring blankly at the fire without really seeing it. Phoebe talked with Fred and George, but, even from a distance, Harry could tell her heart wasn't really in their jokes. Thomas and Neville compared their exam notes, but Neville seemed suspicious of Thomas's lack of concentration. Harry just sat there, trying not to draw attention to himself as he thought about what they had to do.
Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.
Finally, as Lee Jordan left, Harry ran upstairs to their dark dormitory. He pulled out the cloak from his trunk and rushed back down to meet the others. They looked like a very nervous, rag-tag group of students. Serena was wearing her nicest blouse and blazer, as though looking nice would somehow help them. Thomas had picked a hole in his sweater while he'd been waiting; it was large enough to look as though Fluffy had already attacked him. Phoebe was rummaging impossibly deep in her little bag, not paying attention to anyone else.
"We'd better put the cloak on here and make sure it covers all of us. If Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own-." Harry started.
"What are you doing?" A voice from the corner of the room demanded. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.
"Nothing, Neville, nothing." Harry lied, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back. Neville stared at their guilty faces.
"You're going out again." He deduced.
"Nope. Just standing here. Doing nothing." Thomas lied terribly and grimaced at his own words. Phoebe rolled her eyes.
"Neville, go up to bed, sweetie." She said patronizingly but Neville just frowned at her.
Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't afford to waste any more time; Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.
"You can't go out." Neville protested. "You'll be caught n. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."
"You don't understand. This is important." Harry tried to explain. But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.
"I won't let you do it." He said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll... I'll fight you!"
"Fine!" Phoebe started forward, but Serena caught her arm and pulled her back.
"Neville, please-."
"No! I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the ones who told me to stand up to people!"
"Not to us!" Thomas protested.
"Neville, you don't know what's going on here." Phoebe took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leaped out of sight.
"Go on then, try and hit me!" Neville told her, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Thomas took out his wand. "Phoebe, get a gag for him." He pointed his wand at Neville and cast the leg-locker curse on him. Neville's legs snapped together and he fell face first onto the floor.
Harry and Thomas ran over and held him down, their hands over his mouth, until Phoebe pulled a roll of Spello-tape out of her bag. She tore off a good amount with her teeth and quickly slapped it over his mouth. Using the rest of the roll, she taped Neville's wrists together and then taped his wrists to the heaviest table in the common room.
The whole time, Serena stared at them in horror. As Neville started wriggling his upper body, unsuccessfully trying to break free, she turned to look at her friends.
"Was that entirely necessary?"
"You know it was." Thomas told her, looking away from his friend and trying to keep his expression calm.
But leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen. The cloak covered all of them, barely, and they set off with their hearts pounding in their ears. Serena insisted they stop by the kitchens, as she had a plan to distract Fluffy. It was very much out of their way, but the others agreed, as they hadn't had a plan for the three-headed beast themselves.
Harry hadn't even known of the kitchens, but Serena managed to lead them into the gigantic room under the Great Hall near the Huffepuff common room. There were tables identical to the ones in The Great Hall above, high ceilings and huge fireplaces. It was also, thankfully, devoid of any living creature. Serena ducked out from under the cloak and ran to the ice chest in one corner. It looked very un-magical, but, then again, Harry had yet to learn a spell to keep food fresh to take the place one. She pulled out a large roast and hissed for Phoebe to come help her.
After a bit of arguing, Phoebe agreed to carry three large roasts in her magical bag. With the roasts collected, they all got under the cloak once more and ran for the third floor corridor, feeling as though they'd already wasted too much time on Neville and the journey to the kitchens.
A few moments later, they were there, outside the third-floor corridor... and the door was already ajar.
"Well, there you are." Harry said under his breath. "Snape's already got past Fluffy."
Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all three of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to the other three.
"If you want to go back, I won't blame you. You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."
"Don't be a bloody idiot." Phoebe snapped.
"It's not like I'd be able to go to sleep anyway, worrying about you." Thomas added.
"Let's go." Serena sounded brave, but her eyes were wide with fear.
Harry pushed the door open a bit more. As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them. They slipped inside, struggling to keep the cloak around all of them as they did so.
"What's that at it's feet?" Thomas asked, motioning under the cloak at an object lying on the ground.
"It's a harp." Serena answered.
"That's a very feminine instrument. Snape should be ashamed." Phoebe chuckled. Serena and Phoebe started to argue about whether or not instruments could be feminine vs. masculine but Harry and Thomas quickly shut them up.
"You had a plan?" Harry prompted and Serena nodded fast in agreement. They dug the roasts out of Phoebe's bag and Serena lifted the edge of the cloak.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" She whispered and the roasts floated above them. Fluffy's three heads sniffed at them and tried to grab them out of the air, but Serena kept them floating just out of his reach.
With Fluffy momentarily distracted by the delicious floating roasts, the four chucked aside the cloak and hurried to the trap door. Serena kept the roasts floating while the boys managed to swing open the trap door.
"What's down there?" Serena asked anxiously, not taking her eyes off her task.
"Nothing but darkness. Cheery." Phoebe seemed paler than usual; Harry himself didn't feel too brave anymore either.
"I'll drop down first." He whispered. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"
"How do we know if something happens?" Serena asked.
"The signal will be Harry imitating the high pitched scream of a very frightened eleven year old yet to hit puberty." Thomas explained and Phoebe snickered.
Harry let go. Phoebe and Thomas peered into the darkness, but couldn't see if he had landed safely or not. A second later, they heard:
"It's okay! It's a soft landing, you can jump!" It sounded very far away.
"Ladies first." Phoebe told Thomas, jerking her head towards the trap door. Thomas paused, trying to think up a comeback, but then just jumped down without a word. Phoebe turned back towards Serena. "Come on, let's go!" She called, waving her friend over.
"Alright..." Serena said nervously. She stopped her spell and the roasts fell right into Fluffy's three mouths. She ran and jumped through the trap door and Phoebe hurried after her before Fluffy could swallow and decide he wanted something bigger to eat.
They fell for just long enough a time for them to think they'd made a terrible mistake before they landed on something soft and mushy. It was a plant... And it was starting to grab hold of them with its long creepers.
Thomas was scrambling for the edge of the room, but the plant had a hold on his ankles, preventing him from getting very far. Harry was already completely tangled up and one creeper was aiming to wrap itself around his throat.
"It's okay. You can jump." Phoebe mocked Harry's earlier words bitterly.
"What is this?" Serena demanded, trying to fight her way over to the edge of the room. She was just as stuck as Thomas.
"It's Devil's Snare!" Thomas yelled back, trying to free his ankles.
"What do we do?" Serena shrieked, trying to shield her face and throat from the monstrous plant.
"Fire!" Thomas cried out, his voice slightly higher pitched than usual. "Kill it with fire!"
"How... do...?" Harry tried to choke out, but the plant had wrapped one creeper around his throat and was starting to squeeze.
None of them could reach their wands, which they'd stowed in their back pockets for safe keeping while they'd run through the school. Harry was starting to turn an odd shade of blue and Serena was crying in panic.
Phoebe's bag was dangling from her belt loop. She looked down at it and back up at Serena.
"Move your foot up. Just a little. Move my bag up." She ordered. Serena struggled, but managed kick her foot up and nudge the bag just up enough for Phoebe's to get her hand, trapped at the wrist by the plant, inside it. Phoebe pulled out her lighter and flicked it on.
The result was immediate; the creeper around her wrist pulled back at the feel of the open flame and freed her. She had her arm back and she tossed the lit lighter into the middle of the room. The plant caught fire just as the lighter went out. The creepers retracted into the shadowy corners of the room and the four students scrambled to reach the opposite wall before the plant came back again.
"Thomas, you genius." Serena kissed him loudly on the cheek and the boy moaned and pulled away.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." But he looked pleased with himself.
"You okay, Harry?" Phoebe asked. Harry nodded; he could breathe again and his skin was turning back to the correct color.
"This way." Harry wheezed, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. Exchanging looks and grabbing their wand from their pockets, they headed towards their next challenge.