Chapter Four

Wanderings With Weasleys

Ron's celebrity was short-lived. The next day at breakfast, the three of them all received identical notes by owl post. Their detention would take place at 11:00 that night and they were to meet Hagrid in the Entrance Hall.

"You'll be fine with Hagrid," Fred said. "He's nice. I wish we could have detention from him."

"We usually wind up with Filch," George explained. "Detention with Hagrid only works the first couple of times, usually. It's not a real deterrent, and they're onto us by now."

Hermione sniffed. "Well, that will work out perfectly, because I don't intend to get detention again."

That evening, Jane, Hermione, and Ron headed down to the entrance hall together. Winter was well on its way, and they were bundled up in scarves and heavy cloaks.

"Why did you do it, anyway?" Hermione asked, as they descended the stairs. "What possessed you to go after that troll?"

Ron scowled. "I wanted those points back. I've only lost points for Gryffindor. I haven't gotten any back."

"Well, then, you should be concentrating on classwork and—"

"And," Ron interrupted, "you don't have five brothers. My brother Bill got twelve OWLs, Charlie was brilliant at Quidditch… you know about Percy and Fred and George."

"But you're only in first year, Ron," Jane said. "You've got plenty of time to do all of those things."

Ron shrugged.

"Right now you're just lucky you didn't lose any more points," Hermione said. "That's what we should be worried about."

Hagrid looked out of place in the Entrance Hall, almost as if he was too large to be inside.

"Janie!" he exclaimed when they got off the stairs. "Haven't got a good look at yeh yet. Las' time I saw yeh properly yeh were a wee thing."

Jane stopped in her tracks.

"Didn' know that, did you?" Hagrid grinned. "I said yeh looked just like yer mum."

"You did," Jane agreed. "So, you knew them?"

"Yeah, knew 'em well." He cleared his throat. "But righ' now." He surveyed the three of them. "Yer havin' detention."

Jane, Ron, and Hermione followed Hagrid outside and across the lawn toward the Forbidden Forest. It looked even darker and more threatening in the black of night.

"We're not going in there, are we?" Hermione asked. "We aren't allowed."

"Nothin'll hurt you if I'm around." They reached the edge of the forest and Hagrid stopped. There was a huge lantern sitting there, which he lit and handed to Jane. Then he handed a bucket each to Ron and Hermione.

"What's in this?" Ron cried, looking green in the lantern light.

"Dinner!" Hagrid declared. "We're goin' ter visit some friends o' mine. They'll be needin' their dinner."

Hermione said nothing, but even she looked queasy. Jane could now see the buckets were full of raw meat.

"Professor Kettleburn was tellin' me how much yeh like animals, Janie." They followed Hagrid into the forest. "I think yeh'll really like Aragog."

Jane was suddenly intrigued. She'd been wanting to see magical creatures—now she would be getting the chance to.

"Raised Aragog from an egg, I did," Hagrid was saying. "I was in school at the time… had ter have been fifty years ago by now, but Aragog's still the picture of health…"

Was Aragog a bird, then? Jane thought of all the birds in Fantastic Beasts. There were augureys, diricawls, even phoenixes... and then there were things like grindylows that hatched from eggs but weren't birds, but grindylows would be in the lake.

They walked for what seemed like a long time. Jane was beginning to get nervous; she could tell Ron and Hermione already were.

"How far are we from where Aragog lives?" Hermione asked.

"Not far now." Hagrid shifted his crossbow on his shoulder. There was a skittering in the forest that made Ron jump. "Yeh like spiders, Janie?"

Jane was about to reply in the affirmative when they stepped into a clearing. Ron let out a strangled cry of fear and dropped his bucket.

There were spiders in the clearing, but they weren't anything like the spiders in Jane's cupboard. The smallest was at least twelve times as wide as Lee's tarantula, which had sat quite comfortably on top of Jane's head. They were acromantulas.

"Hello there, Aragog," Hagrid said cheerfully. He was oblivious to Ron's expression as he picked the bucket up. "Thought yeh might want a treat."

Ron's mouth was still open in a silent scream. Hermione's knees were knocking together and Jane wondered for a moment why the patch of light was dancing before she realized the lantern was shaking in her hands.

"You have brought more humans," the acromantula said. "Are they this treat?"

Ron yelped and grabbed Jane's arm, but Hagrid laughed as if the spider had made a funny joke.

"O' course not, Aragog. They're students, from up at the school. They've got detention, so they're helpin' me a bit." Hagrid tried and failed to look stern. Jane didn't think Aragog knew or cared what detention was.

"Very well." Aragog sounded disappointed. The other spiders gathered round and Ron grabbed Jane tighter, causing the lantern to swing wildly. It had the effect of making the spiders look even more terrifying. Evidently, Hermione was too frightened to move.

Hagrid began tossing meat to the spiders, looking as cheerful as the sea lion tamer at the zoo. "You kids can feed 'em, too, yeh know," he said.

None of them moved.

The spiders scuttled forward, grasped the meat in their pincers and… Jane had to hide her eyes at this point. Blindly, she reached over and grabbed Hermione, pulling her against Ron and herself.

"Thanks," Hermione said shakily.

"Spiders," Ron said in a quavery voice.

It seemed like hours, but it couldn't have been, by the time Hagrid announced he was finished.

"See yeh later, Aragog!" he cried merrily, and there was the sound of the spiders moving away.

Jane chanced a look outside of their huddle. The spiders were gone.

"Now," Hagrid said. "Yeh won't get a treat like this every time yeh have detention with me, so think about that next time yeh go gettin' inter trouble."

"We will," Ron said thickly, still clutching Jane's cloak. "We'll definitely think about this before we break another rule."

Hagrid looked satisfied.

On the way back through the forest, they were far jumpier. Jane's eagerness to see magical creatures had long since dissipated.

Hagrid was oblivious to their mood, instead talking about how he'd acquired Aragog and his wife Mosag and how they'd happily reproduced here in the forest. Nobody else thought this was a wonderful thing.

Jane was just thinking that she hoped not all magical beasts were this scary in real life when she saw something step onto the path in front of them.

Immediately, her fear left her.

"Oh my goodness," Hermione breathed. "Is that?"

It was a unicorn.

Jane's heart swelled. This was the kind of thing she'd wanted to see, the kinds of things that the other girls in her class at Muggle school had had on their folders, while Jane had only plain manila, on which she had had to draw her own pictures.

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

The unicorn staggered.

"What's wrong with it?" Hermione asked.

"Shhh…" Hagrid held out his arm for them to stay back. "It's wounded. Lemme see if I can—"

Before he could finish his thought, the unicorn bounded off the path and into the forest, leaving a trail of spots of shiny blood. Hagrid sighed.

"I'll have to go after it, see if I can't patch it up." He looked down at Jane, Ron, and Hermione. "You three stay here. I'll be right back." And then Hagrid was gone, crashing off into the forest.

"Stay here," Ron said. "Right." He seemed to realize he was still holding on to Jane and let go.

"At least there aren't any spiders here," she said.

Hermione shuddered. "Don't remind me."

Ron looked green. "Ugh. Spiders. I hate spiders."

"I didn't notice," Jane said.

Ron looked slightly relieved. "You know Fred turned my teddy bear into one? I was three."

"Why would he do that?"

"I broke his—" There was a sliding sound and Ron jumped. "What was that? Is that another one?"

Jane and Hermione pressed in closer to him.

It wasn't an acromantula.

It was a hooded figure, crawling on all fours. Jane couldn't see its face, but she didn't want to. The front of its robes were stained with the unicorn's blood. An unexplainable dread filled Jane as she gripped Ron and Hermione tighter.

It turned to look at them and white-hot pain split Jane's head. She dropped the lantern to clap a hand to her scar and it went out. They could no longer see whatever it was, but they could hear it, moving around them. Ron was whimpering. On her other side, Hermione was muttering something under her breath.

Jane felt something brush her ankles and she screamed. Ron and Hermione screamed, too, and so did the hooded figure. It let out a horrible yell and Jane could hear it crashing away through the trees. Gradually, the sound faded, but the three of them didn't move. Jane was afraid to set foot outside the tight circle they'd formed; she didn't know what else might be out there.

There was another crashing sound and they braced themselves for a third fright, but it was only Hagrid.

"Are yeh all right?" he cried. None of them said anything. "Janie? Ron? Hermione?"

Ron was the first to move. He stepped back from the girls. In the moonlight, Jane could see he was still scared, but was trying to put on a brave face.

"I'm all right," he said. "Don't know what that was, but I'm all right." He was breathing hard. "Jane? Hermione?"

"We're fine," Hermione let go of Jane and pushed her hair out of her face.

"What happened?" Hagrid asked.

"Something," Ron said. "I think… I think it was the thing that hurt the unicorn. Didn't see its face. Don't know if it had a face." His voice shook. "But it's gone now."

"Right," Hermione said, as though she wanted very badly to believe it. "It's gone now. Jane?"

Jane was rubbing her scar. "Did… did anyone else hurt?"

Hagrid grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her all over. "Yeh hurt, Janie?"

"Just my head a bit," she said. "Really, Hagrid, I'm fine."

Hagrid let go of her reluctantly and picked up the lantern. "Well, I'd best get yeh back. I'll look for the unicorn when it's daylight. Come on."

They followed him slowly. Jane wondered why nobody else's head had hurt.

They didn't speak until they'd reached the front door.

"Now get yerselves up to yer common room quick," Hagrid said. "Don't want ter be caught out o' bed."

"Yes, Hagrid," Hermione said. "Good night."

They all said good night and Hagrid closed the big oak front doors. Even the Entrance Hall seemed scary when they were alone and they hurried to the grand staircase, climbing it as quickly as they could. They didn't speak until they were past the Fat Lady's portrait, safe in the Gryffindor common room. It was empty, but the crackling fire seemed comforting. Jane, Ron, and Hermione went to sit by it.

"So," Hermione said, taking the end of her cloak in her hand. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Ron said hollowly. "I don't want to know."

"But—" Hermione started and stopped. "But it hurt the unicorn."

Jane and Ron nodded. Somehow, they couldn't ignore this—whatever had hurt that beautiful creature…

"So what do you want to do about it?" Ron slumped back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "Go back in the forest and look for it?" He shuddered.

"No," Hermione said quickly. "But I thought we might start in the library…"

Despite the late night, Jane had trouble falling asleep. Lavender and Parvati had been asleep for hours and Hermione dropped right off. Jane stayed awake, though, rubbing her forehead. Had it been her scar? No one else had gotten a headache.

She felt a shiver. She didn't want to think about this.

Despite that, she was still thinking about it when dawn broke, hours later.

The next day at breakfast, Ron sat with them. They didn't say anything, but they each knew they were all a little shaky after the encounter in the forest.

Thus, they all jumped a foot when a small gray blur splashed into Jane's pumpkin juice.

"Oh," Ron said. "It's just Errol. He's our owl." He fished him out and shook him off. "He's getting on in years, so—oh no."

"Is Errol all right?" Jane asked.

"Yeah. It's not that." Ron's finger trembled as he pointed at the red envelope tied to Errol's leg. "It's that."

"A letter?" Hermione asked.

"A Howler." Ron quickly untied the letter and looked back and forth, as though planning an escape route.

"You'd better open it," Percy said sternly.

"No," said George eagerly. "Don't open it. I want to see what happens when you don't open it."

Scowling, Ron tore the letter open. Jane jumped again as Mrs. Weasley's voice exploded out of the envelope.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! WHAT WERE YOU EVEN THINKING? THOUGHT YOU COULD TAKE ON A FULL-GROWN MOUNTAIN TROLL ALL BY YOURSELF? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK YOU WERE A MATCH FOR A THING LIKE THAT, TWO MONTHS INTO FIRST YEAR? IT'S THE KIND OF BEHAVIOR I EXPECT FROM FRED AND GEORGE—" The twins exchanged high fives. "—NOT FROM YOU. I'D BEEN HOPING YOU WOULD TAKE AFTER PERCY'S EXAMPLE. AT LEAST JANE AND HERMIONE HAD SENSE."

Ron's face was buried in his hands. Hermione was looking at him with a very Percyish expression, but Jane felt bad. The Howler burst into flames and turned to ash on Ron's empty plate.

"I'm sorry," Jane said softly.

"Why are you sorry?" he asked, but there wasn't any malice in it.

Jane shrugged. "That seems unfair. You were just trying to make up points for Gryffindor. I understand that."

"Thanks," Ron said, sounding appreciative.

"It was still stupid," Hermione said.

"But it was brave," Jane said. "It was very brave. Very Gryffindor."

Ron busied himself pouring another glass of milk, but Jane could see his face was red.

"Here," Hermione said. She dropped a pile of dusty books on the library table. "You two look through these, I'll go find more."

Jane and Ron looked up from the astronomy chart they were working on. "What are those?" Ron asked.

"Unicorns," Hermione said.

Ron reached for the book on top of the stack and drew back. It was bright pink with silver sparkles and a picture of a prancing unicorn. Jane took it. Ron selected When a Horse is Not a Horse: the Equine and the Equinesque.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Ron asked, when Hermione had returned with more books.

"Who would want to hurt a unicorn." Hermione said this quietly, though it didn't seem as scary in the daytime, the wintry light streaming in through the high library windows.

Ron opened the book and began paging through it. Jane wasn't sure she wanted to know—yes, she wanted to protect the unicorns and the school, but there was something in the back of her mind that told her she wouldn't like what she found.

There were apparently loads of uses for unicorns and their body parts—their horn and their hair were useful potions ingredients.

"You think it could have been Snape?" Ron suggested, as they ground unicorn hair for their Memory Potion.

"Why?" Jane tipped the Jobberknoll feathers into their cauldron.

Ron looked at her like she was out of her mind. "Because he's Snape."

It was true that Snape seemed to take a lot of points from Gryffindor and from Ron in particular, but Jane didn't think he was so bad. More than anything else, he acted like she wasn't there. She didn't think he had met her eyes all term, while he usually had a scowl reserved for Ron, Hermione, or Neville.

"No talking, Weasley," Snape said, as he passed.

Ron just shook his head and gave Jane a look.

As Snape walked away, Jane noticed he was limping.

"Oh, Professor!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

Snape looked at her through hooded eyes. "Perfectly all right, Miss Potter. Thank you for your concern." He turned away instantly, stalking over to Crabbe and Goyle's cauldron.

Parkinson and Davis snickered to each other.

That came back to haunt her after class.

"Oh, Professor!" Parkinson simpered, grabbing Davis's arm. "I'm ever so concerned! If I suck up to you, will you give Gryffindor points?" The Slytherins all laughed. Jane felt her face grow hot and she stalked away with Hermione, Ron, and Neville. She really hated them.

Jane was happy to see that Ron stuck around with them, even when they weren't in the library. If Jane and Ron partnered in Potions, that left Hermione free to help Neville, who needed all the help he could get.

Perhaps, thought Jane, Hermione was part of the reason Ron was hanging around with them. He did seem to appreciate it when Hermione helped him with his homework, but Jane certainly appreciated Ron's help when it came to flying.

"Now, backwards isn't so difficult," he said to Jane, Hermione, and Neville. Hermione and Neville looked skeptical. While Neville had managed to stay on his broom, he was still far from enjoying flying class as much as Ron did. At least Neville was still better than Crabbe and Goyle, who still needed help staying on their brooms. He looked pleased that Madam Hooch had asked him to help a smaller group. "You just lean forward and want to go backwards." Ron demonstrated, gliding backwards on his broom, his scarf flapping in the wind. "You try."

Jane squared her shoulders. It was somewhat unnerving being this high off the ground, feeling the wind in her hair. She'd gotten the hang of going forward, but she wasn't sure about backward. Slowly, she leaned forward and thought about going backward. With a jerk, her broom lurched backward, and Jane let out a small shriek.

"All right?" Ron asked.

"Yeah. Think so." Jane wrapped her hands more firmly around the handle of her broom.

"Be careful you don't spook it," Ron said. "They do sort of know when you're afraid." He looked at Hermione and Neville when he said this. "Best thing to do is believe you can do it."

Hermione frowned. "But it's so high…"

"Don't worry about that," Ron said. "You've already got up here. The part's done with. Now what are you going to do?"

Hermione blew her hair out of her face. "I'm going to fly backwards," she declared.

"Of course you are. So do just like I told Jane there."

Jane watched them as she glided backward, slowly picking up speed. Flying was sort of fun, actually.

"How are you doing, Neville?" she called to him.

Neville made a face. "I'm just trying to go forward."

"You can do it." Jane hovered beside him. She wasn't all that confident herself, but she remembered some of the things Ron had told her. "You just have to believe in yourself."

"But Malfoy's going to laugh at me if I mess up."

"Is Malfoy looking at you?"

Neville glanced to the side. Malfoy was flying in loops around Parkinson, Davis, and Greengrass. "No."

"Right then." Jane coasted backwards slowly. "Just come to me." She remembered watching Dudley's swimming lessons when she was younger—the Dursleys had certainly never let her even think about swimming, but she'd seen the teacher lead Dudley along, giving him the confidence while he'd been doing most of the work.

That meant Jane would have to let go of the broom.

"Here." She reached out and grabbed Neville's hands. "I've got you, okay?"

Neville nodded.

Jane's heart was pounding. She'd only just figured out how to fly backwards and here she was doing it with no hands. She'd never even flown forwards with no hands.

But if it was all about belief—and Hermione said a lot of magic was—then she just needed to lend some to Neville and it would be all right.

At first, Jane was definitely leading him; his broom followed her dutifully, Neville seemingly just an inconvenience on top of it. Then, slowly, he began to build confidence of his own and Jane let go of his hands.

"I'm doing it!" Neville said triumphantly.

"You are!" Jane agreed. They flew like this for several more feet. "You'll be ready for Quidditch soon enough."

Neville snorted. "Yeah. Quidditch. Bet Malfoy'd pay to see that."

Gryffindor's first Quidditch match was that Saturday. Jane didn't think she'd care, but being part of a house and friends with people on the team meant she at least knew she wanted Gryffindor to win. On Friday afternoon, she found Dean Thomas in the common room, a large banner spread out before him, with a set of paints.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Making a banner." Dean dipped his paintbrush in some red paint and began to write GO GO GRYFFINDOR in large letters. "We haven't got football, see, so I figure we might as well support Quidditch. You want to add something?"

Jane looked at the paints hungrily. She'd always loved to draw, but she'd never had anything so nice. The Dursleys certainly hadn't wanted her to be creative—outside of the occasional art class at school, she'd just drawn with pencils on scratch paper.

"Can I really?"

"Sure. Knock yourself out. You went to Muggle school, right?"

"Yeah." Jane thought for a moment and reached for a quill. She had an idea, based on some of the pictures she'd seen in Quidditch Through the Ages, but she wasn't sure if she could do it…

"So, who's your team?"

"My team?" Jane looked up. "You mean Gryffindor?"

"Nah, nah." Dean shook his head. "Footie. I'm a West Ham man, myself."

"Oh, I don't really follow football."

"A rugby girl?" Dean grinned.

"Sorry."

"Cricket?"

Jane giggled. "I'm not one for sport, Dean. I'll give Quidditch a shot, though."

Hermione came up to see what they were doing. "Jane, you're really good!" she exclaimed.

"You think so?" Jane looked down. She'd thought to draw a Quidditch side—so far she'd drawn a Beater, swinging his bat at a Bludger.

"She's right," Dean said, examining the figure. "Did you take art classes?"

Jane shook her head. "Nothing like that. Just a little bit at school."

"Well, you're brilliant."

"Thanks." She ducked her head, a little embarrassed. It felt good to be doing something that was somewhat useful, though.

"I can charm it," Hermione said, pulling out her wand. "I found a spell in a library book. Here." She tapped Jane's Beater with her wand and the figure took a swing at the Bludger, sending it shooting across the top of the banner.

"Wicked," Dean said. "How'd you do that?"

"It's not hard," Hermione said. "It's the same theory behind wizarding paintings."

"Come on, Jane," Dean said. "Let's finish out the side."

Together, they drew the rest of the players, the balls, and the hoops. Hermione charmed them all to move and before long the banner was swarming with players. Dean was clever with phrases and the banner alternated between several. Stomp Slytherin and Slay the Serpents were Jane's favorites, but Hermione had refused to charm the dripping blood on the latter, which contained Dean's very realistic drawing of a lion with an enormous snake in its mouth.

"All right," George said, examining the banner. "Which one's me and which one's Fred?" He studied the two Beaters.

"Er…" Jane hadn't really thought about it.

"That one must be me," Fred said. "He's better-looking."

Jane laughed. "I wasn't even trying to make them you two. I was just thinking about the pictures in the book."

"Clearly you were under a subconscious influence," Fred said, running a hand through his hiar.

"So, this means you're coming, right?" George asked.

"Of course! It's Gryffindor!"

George grinned. "Getting the Quidditch bug, are you?"

Jane grinned and took another swab at the banner with her brush. "We'll see."

All of the first-year Gryffindors sat together for the match. They took over the top row of the stands, so that the banner could be fixed behind them. Jane was glad to have Ron sitting next to her to provide explanation.

"I think our chances are decent," he said. "Our team's pretty young, but they're good. Fred and George say they didn't do so well last year, but now the core of the team's got a year under their belts."

There were only two new members on the team this year—Katie Bell, a Chaser, and Owen Burns, the Seeker. Jane was no expert, but she thought he looked unsure of himself. Fred and George waved their bats at them, and the first years waved back.

At first, seeing Quidditch for real and not in a picture in a book was exciting, though the action proved hard to follow. She'd barely been able to follow football in the Muggle world and there was only one ball involved there.

She thought she'd watch the Beaters, to follow Fred and George, but then she missed all the scoring. When she was watching the Chasers, she couldn't follow where the Bludgers were coming from. Lee's commentary helped some, and so did Ron's, though she kept tuning him out whenever he compared a play in the match to one that had happened in a Chudley Cannons match he'd seen.

It was a close match—both teams had really good Chasers, Jane could tell that much; the Slytherin team were all older boys, so they had size on their side, but the girls on the Gryffindor team were agile and quick. Gryffindor had the better Keeper, too, and the twins made very clever Beaters.

In the end, though, as Ron always said, it came down to the Snitch, and Higgs got there before Owen did. It was a long and disappointing walk back to Gryffindor Tower.

"We'd have gotten it if we had the better Seeker," Ron declared. "Don't know what Wood was thinking, putting him in."

"I heard he was the only near-decent one who tried out," Seamus said.

Ron made a face. "Well. We'll get them next time. We have to beat Hufflepuff."

You would never have known Gryffindor had lost the match by the way Fred and George came bounding up to them later.

"So, what did you think, girls?" Fred asked. "Were we brilliant?"

"Very," Jane said. She barely had an idea of what they had done, but it had probably been brilliant.

As winter descended on the castle, Jane, Ron, and Hermione continued their exploration of the library, but their search proved fruitless. By the time Professor McGonagall came around with a signup sheet for those staying at the school over the Christmas holidays, they had read every book about unicorns and were now scanning potions books, making a list of all potions that contained unicorn parts.

"But you can buy unicorn hair," Ron said, shutting his book and leaning back in his armchair in the common room. "Why would someone go into the forest for one when they could just go to Diagon Alley?"

"Who's going into the forest?" Fred asked, as he and George came up behind them.

"Nobody," Ron said, putting his Charms book on top of the library book.

They had told no one else about that night in the forest. Ron had said he didn't want to give the twins ammunition with regards to the spiders, and all three of them knew without saying not to mention the cloaked figure. Perhaps if they didn't say anything, it wasn't real.

"Listen," George said, "Percy's just had an owl from Mum—we're to stay here for Christmas. They're going to Romania to see Charlie."

Ron made a face.

"Oh no," Fred said. "It'll be brilliant. We'll have the castle to ourselves."

"Are you staying, Jane?" George asked.

"I guess," Jane said. "I doubt the Dursleys would want me to show up and ruin their holiday."

George frowned, but Hermione said suddenly, "Oh, Jane, you can't! Come to our house!"

"Your house?"

"Of course! I mean…" Hermione cast an apologetic glance at the Weasley brothers. "I'm sure it's loads of fun here, but my parents want to meet you."

Jane suddenly felt warm. "Really? Nobody's… nobody's ever asked me over before."

"Nobody?" Ron said, a funny look on his face.

"Yeah." Jane looked at all of them in turn. "You guys are the first friends I ever had. The Dursleys didn't want me to have friends. But you guys are brilliant. You're the best first friends I could ask for."

"So it's settled then," Hermione said. "You're coming to my house for Christmas."

"Yes," George said, "and we get her next year."

They were all smiling at her and Jane smiled back. It felt really good to have friends.

Perhaps they sensed she needed cheering up, or perhaps it was coincidence, but the Weasley twins approached Jane, Ron, and Hermione's couch after dinner.

"All right, you lot," Fred said. "Before you girls go off for Christmas, we need to show you something. We've decided you deserve to be inducted into this particular Hogwarts secret."

"Secret?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"It's really cool," George promised.

Ron raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, Ron," Fred said. "It's not a spider."

Ron scowled. "All right. Let's go. Before curfew. I really don't want another detention."

"Ahh, after Percy's job, are you?"

"Can it, Fred."

Jane didn't know what the twins were taking them to see—after her first months in the wizarding world, she would have expected absolutely anything.

"You're not taking us down to the third-floor, are you?" Hermione asked, as they descended the staircase from the fourth floor.

"Why ever would you ask that, Granger?" said George innocently.

Hermione stopped and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh, is it death you're worried about? Because it's perfectly safe."

"We went the first night of school."

Hermione's scowl looked increasingly like Professor McGonagall's.

"Maybe she's worried about Filch." Fred turned to George. "Could it be she's worried about Filch, George?"

"Well, if she's worried about Filch, Fred, he's down in the dungeons. Been there a long time. Probably cleaning up a nasty spill."

"And how would you know that?" Hermione asked icily.

"We have our ways," Fred said mysteriously. "Come on. Maybe she doesn't want to come." He draped one arm around Ron's shoulders and the other around Jane's. "Let's take Ronnie and Janie and leave her here, then, if she doesn't want to see it."

"All by herself…"

"…in this dark and empty corridor."

They set off and had only got a few paces before they heard Hermione's footsteps run to catch up.

"I hate you," she muttered.

They were indeed taking them to the third-floor corridor.

"Now." Fred rubbed his hands together as they stood in front of the door. "There's a trick to this. I just hope it's awake. It sleeps an awful lot."

"Awake?" Jane asked faintly.

Fred whipped out his wand. "And now. If you'll do the honors, George. Alohomora." There was a click and George flung the door open.

It had been waiting on the other side.

Jane, Ron, and Hermione all screamed. The enormous three-headed dog, drool dripping from its yellow fangs, lunged at the door, looking as though it wanted nothing more for a midnight snack than five children—one smaller one for each head and then two bigger ones for afters.

"Oh, he's up!" Fred said, in the same voice one usually used when one was pleased with today's weather for Quidditch. "Brilliant."

"Close the door!" Ron squeaked

"Won't it get out?" Jane asked.

"Naw, can't fit. See?" George waved his hand through the door. Jane's heart stopped, but he withdrew it time; the dog's center head nearly took it off, but the other two heads knocked into the doorjamb. It staggered back, dazed, and George pushed the door shut. They heard the lock click.

Jane, Hermione, and Ron stared at the twins.

"Are you mad?" Hermione said.

"Yes," they said together.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed. Come on." She turned to go. Ron and Jane followed.

"I don't think they've noticed," Hermione said when the twins were out of earshot.

"What, that it could eat them?" Jane said. "No, I don't think they have."

"They should get together with Hagrid," Ron said. "He'd love that thing."

"Not that," Hermione said, as if Jane and Ron were the stupidest people she'd met. "What it was standing on."

"Hermione, if it was standing on my heart's desire, I wouldn't have noticed," said Ron. "I was looking at its heads."

"There was a trap door under it," Hermione explained. "It must be guarding something."

"Don't tell Fred and George," Jane said. "They'll want to know what's down there, next."