Luffy had no clue where he was or where the trophy room was, it didn't much matter though because he was exploring! The pint-sized captain had quickly gotten bored his crew and Hermione just standing around. Luffy wanted to duel! Sure, it wasn't likely to be as fun just punching the mean blond boy but the twins had taught Luffy some really fun spells, like the one that made you dance. Luffy wanted to use that one in the duel.
In his eagerness to duel Luffy had left his crew, certain that they would catch up to him when they were done talking about Zoro. Still, maybe, in his rush to get to the trophy room Luffy had taken a wrong turn. "Everything looks the same in the dark," Luffy pouted puffing out his cheeks and crossing his arms. There weren't even any portraits that he could ask for directions in this hallway.
"Well, well, what is this that Peevesie had found?" a voice sang from above Luffy's head. The pirate jerked his head up and grinned. It was Peeves the poltergeist. "What is a wee-firstie such as yourself doing out of bed at this hour?" The poltergeist questioned floating in a reclined positions looking all the while like he was about to go to sleep.
"I'm exploring before my duel!" Luffy said truthfully. The pirate captain had developed a respect for the poltergeist who liked to play tricks on people. If Brook hadn't been so afraid of ghosts Luffy would have asked Peeves to join his crew.
"Exploring, eh?" Peeves questioned ignoring the comment about the duel. "Nothing around here that would interest eager little firsties...if you want a real adventure, I know the place!"
Luffy felt his eyes light up. "Where!? Show me!"
The intangible prankster smiled widely.
"Why aren't we going back to the common room?" Hermione hissed as the trio continued making their way back to the trophy room.
"Luffy's duel with Draco is in 45 minutes," Nami said as he continued on, keeping a good eye on Zoro to make sure the swordsman didn't end up lost like the captain.
"But Harry isn't here! He's going to get caught by a teacher, just like the rest of us, we should go back!" Hermione said trying to reason with the redhead.
"No one made you come," Zoro muttered. "Go back if you are so worried about getting caught."
Hermione shot the Slytherin a dark look. "Why are you even here? Draco is your housemate, shouldn't you be on his side?"
"I'm Luffy's second," Zoro said simply.
Hermione furrowed her brows and looked at Nami. "I would have thought that Ron would be Harry's second since they are best friends."
Nami snorted and jerked Zoro back from taking a wrong turn. "Please, Zoro is the only one even partially capable of keeping up with Luffy and I'm the navigator, Zoro had always been Luffy's second."
"What does that even mean?" Hermione whisper shouted Luffy and Nami (Ron and Harry! Even she was getting into the habit of using those nicknames!) were best friends and had been since the first day but ever since the dark-skinned Slytherin had started hanging around them there had been a shift in their dynamic. "You three always talk like you've been friends for ages, and you're all playing the stupid pirate game! And those nicknames, what do they even mean?"
Zoro and Nami ignored the girl. "We're here, and look," Nami said pointing at the bond boy and his friends standing by his shoulders. "Malfoy's here too."
Luffy was covered in dust but had a wide grin on his face. Following Peeves had been an adventure itself. The poltergeist wasn't considerate of his companion's tangible state and would often float through walls or urge the first year to crawl through little spaces that the former rubber boy hadn't noticed before his guide pointed them out. Peeves had taken him to a dead-end hallway and motioned to the strange tapestry that covered the wall at the end of the hallway. Luffy barely got a look at the cloth when suddenly he felt the poltergeist give him a sharp shove. The tapestry and wall easily gave way with an almost elastic feeling and Luffy found himself falling.
"Whoooo!" Luffy shouted as the fall became more of a steep, fast slide. He could feel smooth, cool stone beneath him but he couldn't see anything in the pitch black darkness. His short dark hair whipped around and his eyes burned slightly from the bite of the air.
Luffy could feel the slide curve left and then curve right again before it went down steeply becoming almost a free fall again. The slide evened out just a bit, becoming a proper slide again and Luffy saw something. There, floating in the distance was a light.
"Where's Potter?" Malfoy snapped. The crew plus Hermione had shuffled into the trophy room when Draco spoke.
"He's on his way," Nami said, hoping that he was correct. "He'll be here before midnight."
The blond and his hulking cronies sneered but Malfoy seemed content with that. "He better not be late," Malfoy spat. "Or I'll win by default."
"Wrong," Zoro said crossing his arms over his chest. "If Luffy is late, then you get to duel me."
The blond paled but huffed and turned away. He had forgotten that Zabini knew the rules of dueling just as well as he did and the other Slytherin wouldn't let him get away that.
Nami smiled slightly, he always enjoyed seeing the blond boy being thwarted and turned to Hermione the redhead hadn't honestly expected the girl to follow them. "Why are you still here?" Nami asked. "I thought you were looking for a professor to tattle on us."
With so many older siblings Nami had quickly learned the fastest way to make enemies was to tattle, Hermione was obviously either an only child or probably not very good friends with any of her siblings.
The frizzy-haired girl huffed in irritation and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "When you get caught," she said. "I'm going to tell the professor that I was trying to stop this stupid duel, so maybe we can salvage some Gryffindor house points."
Nami snorted and cocked his hand on his hip and rolled his eyes. Nami could see Zoro roll his eyes in response as well. The crew was trying very hard to be friendly with Hermione because Luffy seemed to like the girl but to the two eleven-year-olds sometimes had trouble.
"Are you a tattle-tale, Granger?" the great lumbering Goyle asked, obviously overhearing the conversation. "No wonder you haven't gotten any friends."
"Hey!" Nami snapped whipping around to face the Slytherin. "No one asked you Goyle, why don't you go back to licking Malfoy's boots?"
Zoro glowered darkly from just behind Nami, discouraging any retaliation from Crabbe or Goyle at Nami's words.
Malfoy just scowled darkly at the crew and his goons. "We'll settle this when Potter arrives. It's almost midnight."
Luffy giggled hysterically as he continued down the slide and moved ever closer to the light at the end of the tunnel. Much more suddenly then he expected the slide came to an end and Luffy felt himself tumble forward, feeling the same type of almost elastic resistance that he felt with the tapestry, and rolled on the stone floor.
Dizzy and still giggling Luffy sat up and shook his head. He had no idea where he was or where the trophy room was, but he was surrounded by suits of armor and a long hallway.
The curious reincarnated pirate picked a random direction and began walking. He wasn't sure where he was going or what he was doing but the slide had been a great adventure and he was ready for the next one. One major difference in being a pirate and being a wizard was the lack of adventure. As a pirate, he had constantly bounced, often literally, from adventure to the next and had done so since he was a small child. As a wizard, it took eleven years for his first real adventure to happen and now at the mystery school all he did was learn stuff. So exploring and finding the slide that Peeves had shown him was the best adventure since Brook had shown them all the mystery room that could turn into Sunny and Merry.
"Master!"
Luffy froze.
"Master, please! Forgive me!" A voice pleaded. It was the same voice from only a moment before. It sounded like the speaker was in a lot of pain and was nearby.
Luffy whipped around in and searched for the direction of the voice. A bit ahead was a door with just the tiniest flicker of light peeking out from the space between the door and the floor. Luffy crept closer and carefully put his ear to the door.
"I'll do better, I will! I swear!" The voice said pleadingly.
Luffy frowned. It was familiar but he just couldn't place who the voice belonged to.
The speaker paused as if having a conversation but all Luffy could hear was low almost hissing sound and couldn't make out any words.
As suddenly as the pleading started it stopped. Luffy listened at the door for a while longer but when he heard footsteps moving closer he frantically dived to hide behind one of the suits of armor that decorated the hall.
From his hiding place, all Luffy could see was the swishing of robes and hear the footsteps of the begging person leaving the room and descending down the hallway. He waited for two beats of his heart and decided the man was gone.
The pint-sized captain pushed away from his hiding place and peered into the darkness, looking for some indication as to where he was. "Uh oh," Luffy said, trying to whisper. "I'm going to miss my duel!"
The former rubber boy frantically whipped his head back and forth looking in both directions of the hallway. "Everything looks the same!" He whined. "I'm going to be late!"
"Meow."
Luffy froze and looked down at his feet where the meow came from. "Oh, crap."
"Potter's got five minutes," Malfoy said narrowing his eyes and twirling his wand.
"He'll be here," Zoro said unworried. Nami was tapping his foot nervously.
"What if he got caught?" Nami asked worriedly.
"Then I'll duel Malfoy in his place," Zoro said plainly. "I can beat him easily."
"That's not the point!" Nami hissed. "I don't want Luffy to get in trouble because if he gets caught we are likely to get caught!"
"I told you," Hermione said overhearing their hushed conversation. "You're all going to get into big trouble."
"You're going to get in trouble too, if we do," Zoro pointed out. "Professors like Snape aren't going to care why you're out past curfew."
Hermione seemed to puff up in irritation but her ability to reply was cut off when out of nowhere Luffy barrelled into the trophy room.
The pint-sized pirate captain slammed into his crewmates with a fleshy thud. "Luffy!" Nami and Zoro shouted as they fell into a pile of limbs smashed onto the ground.
"I made it!" Luffy cheered, somehow at the top of the pile, sitting easily on Nami's back as the navigator and swordsman groaned in pain.
"You're late, Potter," Malfoy said stomping up toward the pile of Strawhat pirates.
"Am not!" Luffy declared snatching Nami's arm to look at his watch. "Three minutes until midnight! I'm right on time! See?" Luffy ignored Nami's muffled shout of discomfort.
Malfoy sneered, Luffy faintly wondered if that was the only face the blond could make and shook his head. "Let's get this over with! I want to beat you and be back in the dorm by 1 am."
Luffy grinned, the smile stretching across his face a little too wide to be comfortable, and practically bounced to his feet. Nami and Zoro, after some shoving and muttered curses, followed suit. The green-eyed boy cracked his knuckles and drew his wand. Malfoy smirked in return and also drew his wand.
"You aren't really going to do this are you?" Hermione asked fretfully. "You can't really duel each other? What if someone gets hurt?"
"Shut it, Granger," Malfoy said hatefully. "This is between me and Potter."
Nami gently tugged the frizzy-haired girl back against the wall, away from the soon to be dueling pair. If Luffy's dueling was anything like his fighting it was sure to get messy.
"You, you….boys!" Hermione declared. "You're all so utterly foolish!"
Zoro huffed and ignored her while Malfoy and Luffy didn't seem to even hear her.
"Do you even know the rules for dueling, Potter?" Malfoy taunted.
The black haired boy scrunched up his face and nodded. Fred, George, and Nami had told him in the common room when the twins taught him the spells. "25 paces apart, bow and then fight!" Luffy said laying out the simplified rules the twins had taught him.
"This isn't going to end well is it," Nami asked already knowing the answer. The redhead was standing next to the swordsman and Hermione watching the duel from the wall. He expected more property damage than actual dueling but it would be a miracle if Luffy didn't just punch Malfoy in the face and be done with it.
Hermione frowned disapprovingly and shook her head.
Zoro sighed but suddenly tensed. "Guys we have a problem," he said not looking at the two figures about to duel but instead was looking at the doorway to the trophy room.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Nami asked as he turned to look at what Zoro was looking and froze.
There in the doorway watching the children with her large yellow eyes was Mrs. Norris and very faintly the kids could hear the shuffling of feet indicating that Filch was not far behind.
"Oh bollocks," Nami swore.