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Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. It all belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 8

It was late and we were all in bed by the time I realized that I had forgotten my Potions book in the Trophy Room. I had been looking at the Quidditch awards. Snape had mentioned my father, and I wanted to find him. Sure enough, he had played Seeker for the Gryffindor house team when he was in school.

I had Potions tomorrow and I couldn't just leave my book in there, so I quietly got out of bed and wrapped my cloak around me. I made my way to the door of the dormitory as silently as I could, but when I reached the hallway that led to the common room I tripped on the same skull and fell to the ground with a yelp.

Not wanting to get up, I just let myself lie on the ground for a few moments, enjoying the coolness of the stone floor against my cheek.

"Lumos," I heard a quiet voice say. Suddenly I was bathed in wandlight. I blinked harshly, and found myself staring up at Draco.

"Why are lying on the ground, Potter? Surely you're not hurt?" he asked, without a hint of concern in his voice. "Where are you going anyway?"

"I forgot my Potions book in the Trophy Room earlier."

"And you decided that now was a good time to get it?"

"We have Potions tomorrow. . . . How did you know I was here?"

"You're not exactly the quietest, you know," he replied, rolling his eyes. "And you just tripped quite loudly."

"Right." I jumped to my feet. "Well, I'll be going now, so you can go back to bed."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm coming with you!"

"What?"

"It's like a mission! Not the best partner, I'll admit," he said, looking me up and down, "but I'll have to make do."

"Hey!" I protested, but Draco was already making his way through the common room door, so I followed.

We crept quietly through the moonlit corridors and up staircases until we reached the third floor. We tiptoed quietly into the Trophy Room and looked around at the trophy cases shining in the moonlight.

I spotted my Potions book resting beside the golden plaque that my father's name was engraved into. I grabbed it quickly and tucked it under my arm.

"Okay, let's go," I whispered, and we began walking quickly toward the door. Suddenly Draco was sprawled on the ground to my right. I turned to help him up and watched as he thrust his hand toward the object he had tripped over. We looked at each other in horror as the wandlight revealed Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat.

"Oh, Merlin. We're in trouble," Draco hissed as Mrs. Norris ran off. We began tiptoeing toward the door as quietly as we could when we heard Filch speak.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

We scurried out the door.

"They're in here somewhere," Filch murmured, "probably hiding."

I motioned to Draco to follow me and began creeping down a corridor lined with suits of armor. We could hear Filch getting closer, and I picked the very worst time to stumble over my overlarge pajama-pants. I toppled onto Draco, who crashed into a suit of armor.

"Run!" I yelled, not bothering to keep my voice down, and we sprinted down the hall. We ran through corridors and secret passages, ripped through tapestries, and came out somewhere near the Charms classroom.

"I think we've lost him," I panted. Draco looked at me.

"We have to get back to our dorm. Fast."

"Let's go."

Not long after they started walking, however, Peeves shot out of a classroom and caught sight of them. He squealed happily.

"Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out," I hissed. Peeves only laughed.

"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," I begged again.

"Should tell Filch, I should. It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," Draco snapped impatiently, and swiped at him.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves began shouting immediately, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

We began running again, all the way down the corridor until we ran into a door — a locked door.

"Oh, no!" I moaned. Filch was sprinting toward us; we could hear his footfalls.

"Alohomora!" Draco whispered, and the lock clicked. The door swung open and we slipped through quickly, shutting it behind us and listening carefully. Peeves was frustrating Filch.

Then I decided to turn around, and immediately wished that I hadn't. It was obvious that we were in the forbidden corridor on the third floor, because it was now easy to see why it was forbidden. A monstrous three-headed dog filled the whole space between the ceiling and the floor. And it was growling.

Draco reached for the doorknob, terrified, and threw open the door. We tumbled out and slammed the door behind us. With a glance at each other, we both began sprinting as fast as we could through the castle. We dashed into the common room and collapsed into armchairs.

"Oh, Merlin," I said. "What are they thinking keeping that dog here?"

"I don't know, but did you see what it was standing on?" Draco panted, looking very, very scared.

"The floor?" I questioned. "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 must be guarding something, then."

"Guess so," Draco murmured.

As we made our way back to bed, I couldn't stop thinking about what the dog was guarding. Back at Gringotts, Hagrid had taken a dirty little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen.

I had a feeling that I knew where Hagrid had put it.

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