Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter, or any of the characters from these universes. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

A/N: Thank you once again to those who read and especially to those who reviewed. Over 1100 reviews in just eight chapters! I never expected that kind of response for this story. Especially since the vast majority of them have been extremely positive. While ultimately I do write for myself, seeing everyone else who enjoys my story too definitely helps with the motivation when writing becomes difficult.

Which makes me feel especially terrible that this chapter was delayed so much...But since my last chapter, I have had a bad case of the flu, started a new job, taken some professional certification exams, plus some personal stuff. Suffice to say it has been rather hectic, but things are finally calming down. Barring something catastrophic, the next chapter will be posted April 3, 2013, and I hope to continue an updating schedule of every other week for the foreseeable future.

Chapter 9: A Big Dog

Fred Weasley glanced around the Gryffindor common room with amusement. Most of the students had slowly wandered off for their beds over the course of the 'Welcome Back to Hogwarts' slash 'Harry Potter is in Gryffindor' party. But there were a few of the older students who apparently preferred drinking themselves into a stupor and passing out wherever they lay at the time.

It had been a little concerning at first. This was the first year that Fred and his brother had been able to sneak various alcoholic drinks and other necessary party treats into the castle. And although them being the ones supplying most of the party supplies provided all kinds of opportunities for pranks, it also worked through their supplies with alarming rate.

However, just as they began to worry at just how much some of the sixth and seventh years were drinking and how totally they were willing to ignore the minor prank effects that came with it, Harry Potter himself had come to the rescue. Everyone knew that the Potters had plenty of money, but it had been very nice of him to offer to provide whatever money was needed for future party supplies as long as they would be the ones to actually obtain them.

For that matter, Harry seemed a nice bloke all around. Of course he had the supreme self-confidence in his movements and words one would expect from the savior of the Wizarding World, but he didn't seem arrogant about it like Fred had feared. He hadn't looked down on any of them as lesser beings or expected them to serve him or anything like that. He had only known Harry for a few hours so far, so he might not have the full picture, but so far the kid had seemed a pretty down-to-earth friendly person, and he certainly enjoyed a good laugh.

In a couple years, Fred might see if George wanted to try and induct young Harry into the noble art of pranking. He clearly already had a decent sense of humor, and had even helped defuse a few situations from those who didn't appreciate having their hair or skin change colors or being forced to dance a jig. It wasn't like they had pulled out any of the really serious stuff. Those sorts of pranks were strictly reserved for Slytherins. But some people just couldn't take a joke. Potter didn't have a problem with that though. He had actually seemed to have a way of convincing the victims of a prank to laugh along with others, rather than get upset about being laughed at. A much better result all around.

Harry did seem to have an uncanny ability to avoid himself being the target of their pranks though, which was a good sign in a budding prankster. Someone who could recognize a prank coming was someone who could plan one himself.

The first time had been when he had avoided a pranked pastry they had sent his way. It might have just been coincidence, or him not liking that kind of pastry if that was the only incident of its kind. At the time, they hadn't thought anything of it. Then he had casually dodged a jinx sent at his back and given a playful wink at them for the attempt. That had been impressive, but really nothing that shouldn't have been expected of the Boy-Who-Lived. But the third...That one was the one that confused Fred. They had seen him drink a cup they knew was potioned, with absolutely no effect. And the kid had just laughed at them when they gave up trying to figure out how he did it and asked him. Yes, the boy definitely had potential.

But for now Fred nudged George awake. The last conscious person in the common room had finally dozed off, or passed out, depending on how polite you were being about it.

The two of them had tried a little firewhisky, but had mostly stuck with butterbeer. Being sober enough to successfully complete pranks was far more interesting than drinking until they fell over.

Besides, it was the perfect time to do an initial investigation of that third floor corridor. They could be the first to see what Dumbledore was hiding. And the party made a pretty good alibi too. If they were asked about it later, there were a dozen people who could attest that they were passed out in the common room. After all, Fred had learned long ago that a lie that made the liar look bad was far more likely to be believed. That was true for everyone, but it was especially true when concerning the Weasley Twins, given the fact that every adult who knew them would keep digging until they came up with some sort of wrong-doing. Start with the drinking, and people wouldn't look any further.

"Come on George," Fred whispered to his brother as he headed towards the exit from the Gryffindor common room. As he walked, he carefully slipped out of a pocket in his robes what looked like a blank piece of parchment until he whispered the words, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," as he tapped it with his wand.

The Marauder's Map, as the parchment was revealed to be, was truly a marvel, for it revealed a detailed map of the entire Hogwarts castle as well as the movements of everyone who resided there. Fred and George still had no idea how it worked, but were determined to figure it out by the time they graduated.

A quick glance at the map revealed no movement in the hallways, so Fred gave a small nod to his brother as George approached and slipped out of the now open doorway with him, putting the map away once more at the same time.

The hallways of Hogwarts were deserted, but that was to be expected after two o'clock in the morning. From prior year's experience, Fred knew that Filtch would occasionally patrol this late, but all the prefects and other teachers would be long asleep in their beds. On the other hand, while the chances of getting caught were reduced, the penalties tended to be much higher as well. Being out less than an hour after curfew tended to result in a detention and a few points lost. But being out this late would have McGonagall coming down hard even if she didn't know what they were up to.

Which was why the two brothers remained silent as they crept through the hallways towards the forbidden third floor corridor. Though why the third floor, Fred would never know. There were entire wings of Hogwarts that were almost never used, but the third floor corridor which Dumbledore had so temptingly forbidden this year was the standard location for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Every student from second year up knew their way around that corridor quite well.

As they approached the entrance to the third floor, Fred whispered to his brother, "Stop for a minute. Let me check the map to make sure no one is up." He then pulled out the map again, activated it, and glanced at it briefly. He didn't expect anyone this late, and was just scanning the hallways nearby for any movement, so he almost missed it.

But just as he was about to clear and close the map, he noticed another name where there should have just been two. In a clump in the middle of an abandoned hall just short of the door leading to the third floor corridor were three names. It took a few seconds for that to really process as he just stared at the extra name which according to the map was less than a dozen feet from him and his brother.

But finally what that name meant worked its way through the impossibility of it being there in his mind, and he spun around and called out, "Harry Potter?" to the shock of his brother.

But his brother was even more shocked when a rather sheepish looking Harry Potter stepped out from behind a set of armor the twins had walked past less than thirty seconds before.

"Umm...Hey guys. How are you doing tonight?" Harry asked with what might have been a charming grin to anyone else. But Fred had attempted that exact grin too many times to fall for it himself.

"Hi Harry." Fred began, and George picked up. "Just out for a walk."

"How about you?" Fred finished.

Many people thought that either they planned out these conversations or had some kind of magical twin mental link or something ridiculous like that. Neither was true. Really it was just a combination of knowing each other really well and being very, very good at improvisation. They knew each other well enough to generally guess the basic direction of the other's thoughts and ideas. And when one of them guessed wrong about where the other was going with something, which did happen occasionally, they were good enough to just roll with the change and continue the conversation as if it was always planned to go that way.

"Oh," Harry responded with a surprised expression on his face. "I was going to go look at the third floor corridor Dumbledore told us to stay away from. It sounded interesting. I assumed you guys were going there too when you left the common room." The cheeky little bugger then gave a casual shrug and started towards the doorway they were standing in front of as he said, "Oh well. Have a nice walk. Guess I will see you in the morning?"

"Wait," Fred said, finding himself shocked once again. "You followed us all the way from the common room? I thought you were just hiding there," he said with a vague hand motion towards the suit of armor the first-year had been behind when Fred noticed him on the map.

That would have been at least vaguely possible. Fred thought he would have noticed Harry as they passed the set of armor, but it was possible they might have missed him. But surely they would have noticed him if he was following them all the way from the common room?

But Harry just shrugged noncommittally before asking, "So how did you know where I was? Something about a map? You clearly didn't see me until whatever that is told you I was there."

"Oh that..." Fred glanced over at George with a concerned look. "That's...Well..." He trailed off and George finished somewhat lamely, "a secret." Normally they were so careful to keep the map hidden from anyone else, only checking it when they were certain no one was watching or listening to them. That hadn't worked out so well for them this time though. Caught by a first-year, on the very first night of school. Fred was sure he would die of shame. Or possibly that was just gas. Maybe George could tell him which it was later.

Harry quirked an eyebrow questioningly, but he also shrugged and replied, "Ok, I guess. Anyway, we were going to see what made Dumbledore forbid this corridor, right?"

Fred glanced over to his twin once again and found him wearing a matching wide grin as they both looked back at Harry. "So, Ickle Harrikins wants to"

"Go exploring with us?" George continued, shifting back into territory more comfortable for the twins. They then advanced on the little first year with wide grins any of the older Hogwarts students would have found quite ominous as they continued shifting back and forth in who spoke.

"Discover Secrets?"

"Find Danger?"

"Unravel mysteries?"

"Evade Capture?"

"Be a distraction?"

"Act as bait?" George finished the steadily increasingly menacing questions, now having advanced close enough to loom over the younger boy.

It did not have the intended effect, as Harry simply grinned back at the two and replied in a voice that simply could not be any more bright and chipper, "Sure! That sounds like fun!"

Fred just looked over at his twin with a slightly confused raised eyebrow, meeting George's identical expression before they simultaneously fell in on both sides of Harry and dropped their arms around the shorter boy's shoulders.

"Very well then, my good chum," George began.

"Onwards we go, into the unknown."

"And may you still be alive on the morrow."

"Or at least not implicate us in your demise," Fred ended in a tone almost as cheerful as the one Harry used moments before.

But Harry just continued to grin back at both of them, clearly not intimidated in the slightest. Which made for what would have been a rather odd sight if anyone had been there to witness it as three widely grinning children hurried into the dark and abandoned third floor corridor late at night with arms wrapped around each other's shoulders.

Having arrived at their destination, none spoke, and they simply looked around for whatever secrets Dumbledore might be hiding here. Not that they could be truly serious secrets, given that telling an entire school to stay away was almost begging said school children to investigate.

But the corridor seemed simply abandoned. Fred knew it well from going to Defense Against the Dark Arts for two years, so he assumed he would have noticed anything significantly out of place. But all he saw was an empty hallway and a few dusty rooms. Or that is all he saw until they reached the closed doorway at the end of the corridor.

Both Fred and George paused at this point to examine the doorway, carefully looking around for any signs of traps or any sort of monitoring. But before they could make more than the most cursory examination, Harry slipped out of the grasp and darted up to the doorway to yank on the handle, totally ignoring their simultaneously harshly whispered, "No, wait!"

But fortunately the door didn't budge.

Not that this changed Fred's annoyance. There was a certain way in which these things were done. The twins had plenty of experience from similar explorations in the past. There was a reason Dumbledore looked at two third years when he explained about the Forbidden Forest being forbidden. And jumping forward to yank open closed doors in forbidden areas wasn't the way to do it. After all, there was also a reason they were still alive after taking so many trips into the Forbidden Forest as first and second-years that even Dumbledore was aware of it.

And caution was especially important when Dumbledore said that 'certain death' awaited those who ventured here. Not even the Forbidden Forest got such a strong advertisement, and there were all kinds of ways to get yourself killed very quickly there if you were not careful.

This was clearly something Harry had no understanding of, because by the time the twins had taken slow sighs of relief at Harry's failure to open the door, the boy had pulled out his wand from...somewhere. It must have been one of those fancy quick release wrist holsters because the wand seemed to just appear in his hand. But still without listening to their earlier urges for Harry to wait, he jammed the wand directly into the keyhole and twisting it, causing a quiet click which was rather ominous for all its almost inaudible nature.

This time the Fred's exclamation of, "Wait, stop!" was not in a whisper. George was still a bit too shocked to say anything, but he did jump forward with Fred to grab Harry before he could pull the door open.

Unfortunately, they pulled Harry directly away from the door. The door which Harry was still holding the handle of. A door which opened out into the hall in the direction they were pulling Harry.

When the door swung open rather forcefully, given the strength of the twin's combined pull, both froze. This was a very, very different situation than their normal careful and guarded exploration of the unknown.

But while they were staring into pitch black of the room beyond the now open doorway, Harry took advantage of their shock to slip away from their loosened grasp and hurry through the doorway.

They both probably would have found the desperately quiet screams for Harry to come back quite humorous in other circumstances. But in these circumstances they were far more concerned with the fact that the floating blue ball of light Harry had produced...somehow was showed a massive three-headed dog very much awake and aware of their presence - and not pleased with it, if its low growling meant anything.

But as much as their own senses of terror had already spiked in this new and unexpected situation, they quickly found that things could still get worse when Harry's response to this new sight consisted of an exclamation of "Cool! Look at that!" and taking a step forward.

And then the growling, which had been growing steadily louder as Harry moved towards the great beast, abruptly cut off with startling suddenness, replaced with a soft whimper. All either of the twins could see was that Harry was just looking at the giant dog, so this unexpected change was just as strange to them as Harry's apparent insanity.

But even that shock was beaten when Harry finally reached the cerberus and stretched up to scratch it behind the ear of its middle head. More importantly, this meant that the dog's giant muzzle, large enough to literally bite an eleven year old in half, was pressed against his chest, and the right head was looking directly at his unprotected back.

And yet it didn't attack.

As Harry continued to scratch, he murmured, "Aww...You're a good boy, aren't you? Yes you are. Such a good doggy!" in the exact tone generally reserved for six inch tall puppies, rather than eight foot tall monsters. But instead of doing what would make sense in a rational world and immediately killing and eating Harry, its tail started wagging quite vigorously as its body loomed over the comparatively tiny Harry Potter.

This was finally enough to shake the twins out of the state of astonished horror which had virtually consumed them for the past minute.

So Fred turned to George and quietly whispered, "Am I dreaming, George?"

"Well, I don't think you are dreaming," he responded just as quietly. "But I might be. What do you think?"

Fred shrugged in reply. "I don't think you are dreaming either if I'm not. This is...weird though, right? I haven't suddenly gone insane or anything?"

"Well..." George hesitated. "No more insane than normal, I suppose. Do you think it is just tame? Maybe just looks scary, but is actually very friendly?"

"It's a cerberus. I remember hearing about those from Charlie. They are not supposed to really be tamable. They make good guard dogs in that they will tear anyone who comes close apart, but no one really uses them because that 'anyone' includes the person who put the cerberus there. They are only supposed to respect and leave alone things bigger and stronger than them. So...dragons and the like, I suppose." Fred cocked his head to the side and squinted, trying to remember everything Charlie had mentioned about them. "But maybe someone figured out how to control them. Think we should check it out?"

After a short hesitation, George said, "Sure, oh brother of mine. You first."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly. I'm the pretty one!"

"No, that was me, remember?"

"Ah...right you are." But still Fred hesitated, not quite willing to take those steps which would put him within range of those massive, flesh rending jaws, regardless of how docile it seemed.

But his hesitation was interrupted as Harry turned back at him, not stopping his scratching as he did so, and called out, "Are you guys putting on that show for me, or are you really like that when by yourselves?" He sounded honestly curious, and not at all concerned by the fact that he was now not looking at any of the three massive heads which could decide to tear him to pieces at a moment's notice.

This was enough to reassure Fred, so he took a deep breath and started walking forward as he said, "I have no idea what you are talking about Harrikens."

"That's a scary thought," Harry replied dryly.

George just snorted. "That's the thing you find scary?"

Harry blinked in surprise and frowned in a confused manner. "What else would I be scared of?" After a short pause, the cerberus butted his head into Harry's chest knocking him back a couple steps, apparently wanting him to move his scratching to a different area. This did seem to remind Harry that a veritable machine of death was literally rubbing against him at this particular moment though. So his eyes widened as he continued, "Oh, you mean him? Nah, he's a good doggy."

At this, he turned back to the beast and started scratching more enthusiastically once again.

The change came very quickly. At least as fast as when the cerberus had originally switched from growling threateningly to whimpering subserviently. One moment the middle head was panting in satisfaction at the thorough ear-rub he was receiving and the other two heads were just looking on with mild curiosity and ignoring the two redheaded twins. The next moment, the left head apparently decided to make a meal out of Fred and lunged forward with shocking speed. It was so fast, in fact, that Fred couldn't even do anything other than freeze in terror.

Harry though moved with what had to be at least equal speed. Fred wasn't actually watching him at that particular moment though, given that a gaping maw was rushing towards him, and that took most of his attention.

But the moment before the cerberus' teeth reached him, Harry appeared just in front of him and reached into the monster's mouth to grab hold of one of it canines. And despite the fact that his hand didn't even reach all the way around the tooth, he used that as a handhold to twist the head to the side and into the ground hard enough to shake the floor slightly.

And with that, the other two heads of the cerberus dropped down to the ground and all three began to whine piteously as Harry started scolding the creature like a puppy who made a mess in the living room. "Bad doggy! Bad! He isn't food. You shouldn't try to eat him! That's bad!"

Fred used this time to scurry back to his brother outside the room and well out of the range of any of the heads, should they decide to try and make a snack of him once again.

After another thirty seconds of scolding and of the twins looking on in awe, Harry let the left head up and started softly scratching it under its jaw as he looked back at the twins. "Sorry about that...He seems to think you are food for some reason. You probably shouldn't come here again without me in the future. Sometimes it takes a few times for puppies to learn, and that wouldn't really be good."

"Umm...yeah. That wouldn't be good at all. I don't think we will be coming back here at all though, after tonight." George stated slowly. Fred was still in too much shock to say anything.

Harry shrugged and gave a pat to the head he had been scratching before pushing it back away from him as he walked out the door and pushed it closed again. "Well, that works too, I guess. Anyway, thanks for letting me come with you to check out the third-floor corridor! It was pretty exciting. You will have to show me all the good spots in the Forbidden Forest some time."

"Err...right. Maybe some time," Fred finally responded, his tremors subsiding to manageable levels.

"Ok! Well, I'm going to go explore the castle some more tonight. I will see you guys in the morning, I guess?"

"Yeah, sure. Just watch out for Filtch and Mrs. Norris," George replied a little uncertainly. "She can be...kind of...uhh...mean."

"Ok, I'll keep an eye out for them. Thanks for the warning," Harry called out over his shoulder as he walked away, leaving the two twins in a rare state of speechlessness standing alone in the third-floor forbidden corridor.

A long silence passed before Fred finally broke in, "So that was..." He trailed off, not quite sure of how to describe the long series of insane events which had just taken place.

But George seemed to understand, as he replied, "Yes, it definitely was. Very much so."

Another silence followed, though not quite as long.

"So," Fred asked, "Ready to head back, I suppose?" He quickly pulled out the Marauder's Map while he asked the question to glance around for any movement, finding none except for the mark that indicated Harry Potter had already made it up to the fifth floor.

A few minutes later as they walked through the darkened but familiar hallways of Hogwarts, George slowly asked, "So...Do you suppose that all those ridiculous Harry Potter stories might be true after all?"

"You mean the ones in which Harry kills a rampaging werewolf at four, slays an entire coven of vampires at six, and tames a wild dragon to serve as his mount at seven?" Fred took a moment to consider it. "That...does seem a little too close to what happened tonight for comfort. Dad said they weren't real though, but I guess it's possible he was wrong."

Another moment passed in silent contemplation before George started snickering.

"What?" asked Fred.

"Ginny is going to be so mad that we got to be part of a Harry Potter Adventure, and she didn't."

Fred started snickering at this thought too. "So what do you think the best way to gloat would be? Should we start sending letters now, or should we wait until we are in person at Christmas to let her know what she missed?"

"Oh, that's just mean Fred." George cocked his head to the side in thought. "But we should definitely start hinting at it in letters now. Let the anticipation of the full story build up over the months. I think that would have the biggest impact. She'll go mental. And mum might end up a little barmy too, having to put up with her complaints over not being here."

"So two for the price of one, huh?" Fred laughed again, the world returning to normal as he bantered and plotted with his brother. Or perhaps the sense of normalcy had more to do with the fact that Harry Potter wasn't around anymore.

Eventually the laughter died down and Fred said, "Should be a fun few months. And there is always next year if she is really determined to be part of her own Harry Potter Adventure. Assuming she can ever work up the courage to speak to him anyway."

A/N:

Writing from the perspective of the Weasley twins was surprisingly difficult. I'm not really certain why, either. Their personalities and motivations are not particularly complex. It isn't that difficult to keep them in character. The situation naturally lent itself to humor, which is the twin's bread and butter. And yet this chapter was one of the most difficult I have ever written. Perhaps because they were mostly the target of the humor, rather than the instigators as is more natural for them?

Well, regardless of why, I'm still not sure how well it came out. And that difficulty certainly didn't help when it was so hard to find the time to write because of how crazy life has been lately. Finally managing to get half an hour to sit down and write and then just ending up staring at the screen, not sure how to put what I wanted into words was extremely frustrating. But, here it is. In spite of the delay and relative shortness, I hope you liked it. I promise next chapter will be completed much, much more quickly.

Please review! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake - I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You made Harry too powerful. You suck" will be ignored.