Chapter Seventeen.
The Creature.
Hermione, Ron and Harry waited for me at the end of dinner as Hermione claimed she had something that Harry and I would want to see. I rushed to finish my food in order to catch up with them but Mae and Pansy managed to corner me and ask if I was okay, they must of thought I was feeling out of place in Slytherin as they invited me to do the Potions homework that we were all struggling on. It was clearly obvious that Gryffindors and Slytherins did not like each other for some reason and everyone must of thought it was strange for me to constantly hang out with the other house despite one being my twin but I just assure my room-mates that I am fine, spending time with my brother and that I would be back later to do the Potions homework with them before scuttling off in search of my brother and our friends.
Hermione walked quicker than anyone I had known, she practically has me, Ron and Harry jogging after her as she navigates us through the lit corridors of Hogwarts. Continuously we ask her were she is taking us but she simply replies with "You'll see." which makes Ron moan with aggravation. Then suddenly, we stop outside of a glass display cabinet marked with 'achievements' on the wood beneath the glass. She then points to the shield shaped award plaque that has a golden banner across the center reading 'Quidditch Champions Gryffindor.' and in a golden badge at the bottom beneath the name Seeker is James Potter – our father.
"See?" Hermione grins as me and Harry gawk at the glimmering golden name, "Quidditch is in your blood."
After a good fifteen minutes of Harry and I mumbling words of excitement to one another, Ron begins to get irritating having to spend that much time beside Hermione without Harry's input and soon, Harry bows under the pressure of Ron unintelligible moans and signs.
"Are you going back to your common room?" Harry asks as we all trot down the corridor, admittedly with a little spring in our steps. I looked back at Hermione who looked a little uncomfortable, I really should get back to Mae and Pansy but I look at Hermione and can't seem to will myself to go back but I knew deep down I should or it will cause problems, having friends outside of my house from great but I needed to keep some inside Slytherin as well.
"I promised Mae and Pansy I would get back to help them with the Transfiguration homework," I mumble as all three of them make the same flinch and grossed face when I mentioned Pansy's name, I shrug feeling really bad but then I turn to Hermione who looks saddened, "Did you want to go the library about eight? Shouldn't take Pansy and Mae to do the homework." I say, Hermione let a small grin creep across her features, she smiled and agreed, by this rate I will have all my homework done days before they are due in but I was thankful to get into this habit now because if not, I will just leave it until the last moment, I'm rather lazy like that.
"I'll see you in the morning." Harry grins pulling me into a hug, saying goodbye was always difficult for us because being at Hogwarts was the first time either of us have been apart from each other except at normal school obviously but we hung out at lunch and break like we do here, it's just different and strange.
Ron smiles and says goodbye before him and Harry wander off however I see Harry linger around for Hermione who looks at my brother with a grateful gaze, Harry will never push someone away because he knows how it feels. I tell Hermione I will see her later and all three of them walk off whilst I turn the opposite way, clutching my free work and books heading for the Slytherin common room.
"Wattlebird." I said to the faint outline of the door, it took a moment but soon the entrance to the common room was in front of me, welcoming me to the surprisingly living room behind. The Slytherin student were defiantly the most rowdy and animistic, older students tell younger students about wild parties, nights of vomiting and hiding mischief from teachers.
A few older students mutter things as I walk past but I ignore them, Blaise gave me a smile as I head towards the dorm stairs and into my dormitory where my room-mates where talking about something that looked greatly important.
"Hey!" Mae said happily, I'm surprised to see Pansy smile and greet me as well. We all get to work and finish the homework quickly and the conversation quickly turns to boys before I knew it, Pansy admits to having a crush on Draco which isn't all that surprising whilst Mae thinks than one of the elder boys are cute, I nod along and pretend to like some of the boys as well but I haven't really spent any time looking at the boys – or girls.
We continue to laugh and tell stories but when I check my watch, I realise it was half past eight and I shoot up like a bullet grabbing my robe muttering that I have to go quickly.
"Where are you going?" they question me.
I flush a deep red, "To the library, I'm really sorry!"
"How about lunch tomorrow? Mae and I are going to hang out with some of the older Slytherins, want to join?" Pansy looks as if she is challenging, waiting for me to say no but I smile politely instead and agree. Pansy looks shocked but Mae smiles like she knew my plan all along, and with glee building up in my chest, I flee the Slytherin common room in search of a no doubt angry Hermione.
"Hermione!" I gasp as I sprint round the corner the bushy haired Gryffindor had fled round, I grab her shoulder lightly and turn her to face me, which is when I see her face stained red from tears. "I'm so sorry, I got a little carried away in the common room, I'm sorry." I apologise over and over again but Hermione doesn't look convinced and I fear I may have ruined our friendship until she drops her books at our feet and pulls me into a tight hug which I return.
Then I realise, after a few minutes, this wasn't just about me being late to meet her in the library, something else was going on, I pull away to look at her. "What's going on?" I demand, her bottom lip quivers but my gaze remains stern,
"It's Ron and your brother," Hermione manages to say through her sobs and hiccups, "Draco challenged them to a duel after curfew! Wizard duels are forbidden unless in a controlled environment, meaning if they get caught – "
"They'll get expelled." I finish her sentence angrily. "Where are they meeting?" I question.
"The trophy room," she tells me, I nod and begin to march in the direction of the stairs. "Where are you going?" Hermione hissed following me quickly.
"To get my stupid brother and his equally as idiotic friend from getting expelled." I growl, Hermione took the lead considering I actually had no idea where I was going and she got us there quickly. We touched the door handle, surprised to find it actually open and stepped inside. We waited for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes after curfew before someone gripped the door handle, it must be either Draco and Crabbe or Ron and Harry and to my relief it was my twin and his friend who almost screamed like little girls when Hermione and I grabbed them in the dark.
"Where are you doing here!" Ron hissed venomously at Hermione before looking at me, "Here to cheer Malfoy on?" he sneered at me causing anger to swell up in my chest.
I step forward, shielding Hermione from Ron, "Keeping you two from getting expelled!" I hiss back whilst shooting Harry a disapproving glance that made him look down at his feet. Ron moved away from me nervously. "Well, it looks like you two have been tricked because neither Draco or Slytherin aside from myself has been inside this room."
Then a noise from inside the next room made us all jump, Harry had only just raised his wand to see when we all heard a voice speak – and it wasn't Malfoy, it was worse. It was Filch speaking to Mrs Norris. Horror-struck, I waved madly at the other three to follow me as quickly as possible as quietly as possible as we scuttled towards the doorway furthest from Filch.
"Find them, my darling." he cooed to his cat.
I mouthed for the other to follow me as we wound our way down the long gallery filled with suits of amour. We were all petrified as we heard Filch getting near and near. We flung out of the classroom and into another open room quickly to shut the door quietly but instead we found ourself in a small corridor with only one door at the end. We ran straight forward as the goblets on the wall sparked to light.
"It's locked!" Ron whines as he rattles at the handle.
"Oh, move over." Hermione snarled, she grabbed her wand from her rob and aimed it at the lock, tapping it once and spoke softly, "Alohamora." The lock clicked and the door swung open – we piled through and suit it quickly and held our breaths to remain silent as possible whilst we pressed our ears up against the wood.
"Stop breathing on me!" Ron hissed to Hermione as we heard Filch leave, hurrying Mrs Norris along with him.
"I'm not breathing on you!" Hermione shot back from the other end of the line against the door.
Ignoring them both, I ease up from the wooden door, "Where are we?" I question as I felt something graze across the back of my exposed skin at the back of my neck, it was warm like breath as Ron had said but Ron, Harry and Hermione were all stood to the side of me. The front wall of the room was made of grey stone. As the warm breath continues to blow over my neck, I turn around to be confronted by a monstrous dog.
"We're in the third floor corridor, it's forbidden." I then mumble before anyone could reply to me because now I knew why it was forbidden, I turned back to see Ron, Harry and Hermione all still pressed against the door, I tugged on my brothers robe and they all turned to face the creature in the room with us.
The dog filled the entire space between floor to ceiling – it had three-heads. Three pairs of yellow eyes; three black wet noses which twitch in different directions; three drooling mouths, saliva pooling on the floor from yellowish fangs. I swallow down the lump in my throat but that only made the situation worse as the three dogs opened their eyes revealing bright yellow orbs, their heads rise and they all snarl at us.
Screams erupt from our lungs before we could stop them but they were simply shadowed by the thunderous barks of the dogs. Harry grappled the door handle – between Filch and death, it'd take Filch any day. We tumbled through the door before wrestling the door shut as one of the dog poked it head through the doorway but between the four of us we just about manage to shut the door and sprint away from the forbidden corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for us somewhere else because we didn't come in contact with him anymore.
"What were they thinking! Keeping a thing like that locked up in a school!?" Ron explodes.
Hermione scoffed, "You don't look with your eyes, do you?" she questions making Ron feel like an idiot.
We got to the section of the school where I am required to part ways so I could get back to my comfortable bed and Milo, "Non of us were looking at its feet, Hermione. I was too busy looking at it's heads." I replied, slightly backing up Ron who looks surprised.
"It's sat on a trapdoor, which means it wasn't there by accident, it's guarding something," Hermione explained shooting me a look, "Now, I hope you both are proud of yourselves because we all could have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now, I'm going to bed before you two come up with any other stupid ideas that put Grace and I in danger."
And then Hermione stormed off whilst Ron stared at her back with his mouth hanging open, "We didn't drag them along." he huffs before walking up several stairs away from Harry and I.
Harry looked far beyond ashamed as he apologised to me giving me a hug and he even asked if I wanted to be walked back to the Slytherin common room. I decline nicely before saying goodnight to the others before darting off down the stairs, quickly checking around corners to make sure Mrs Norris or Filch wasn't there waiting. When I entered the common room, there was an older boy sitting by the fire, he had jet black hair and slightly tanned skin with bright green eyes, the boy smiles at me and I return it before wondering why he is up so late but I'm certain that he is expecting the same.
Mae and Pansy were still awake then I arrived back in the common room, they had mugs of steaming hot chocolate and marshmallows. They greet me back and magic me up a cup, I change into my night dress before joining the others on Pansy bed, Milo greeted me affectionately brushing against my chin, licking my hand before eventually calming down and curling up on my lap. Horus looks at me suspiciously but doesn't deny me when I go to rub him between the ears. The three of us laugh like we did the first night we met, Mae and Pansy weren't bad friends because they insisted on me hanging out with them. It was around midnight when a tap echoed through our room making us all jump, we turn to the window to see a Mae's barn owl tapping against the glass resting on the owl stand outside.
Mae leapt up as the owl continued tapping with a letter clasped within it beak, she lets the bird in – who is called Misty – and carries her on Mae's arm over to the bed where the owl takes place on her shoulder away from the cats who actually don't seem very interested in the potential meal.
"Who is it from?" Pansy asks sipping her hot chocolate carefully.
Mae doesn't look up from the letter, "My brother, Cedric." she replies.
"Isn't he a Hufflepuff?" Pansy sniggers.
Mae looked saddened by Pansy's comment but before Pansy can even attempt to apologise, Mae had gotten off the bed quickly ensuring that Misty has flown into her cage that was handing on a stand keeping it off the floor by three feet. Pansy looks a bit shocked at Mae's reaction but what can she really expect? I then understand what I maybe haven't realised before, Mae had a sibling in a different house who also for a few years lived away from her, she knows how I feel more than I had realised.
"I'm going to go to sleep." I tell Pansy who gave me a single nod in reply before turning away from me.
Milo jumped off my lap and lounges across my bed. I sign heavily placing the mug of hot chocolate on the bedside table and climbed in. Apparently Milo felt it appropriate for him to curl up on the pillow beside my head resting his small feline head in the crook of my neck but Hermione had given me something else to think about as when I close my eyes to sleep, I can't seem to. The dog was guarding something but then I remember back to something Hagrid had said, "Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide – except perhaps Hogwarts," And as I turned over to readjust Milo from breath on me, it looked as though I had figure out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.
A/N: First of all, I want to apologise a hundred and ten percent for leaving you guys hanging for so long! I've had a lot of personal problems going on as well as college but I'm back and will update a lot quicker with christmas coming up! I hope you enjoy this chapter because it gives you guys a little insight to the Slytherin friendships as well. Please comment, follow and favourite! I've missed you!