So, hello everyone. To my utter surprise, there are some people who liked this story. Therefore, I will publish the rest in bulks because… I don't write "chapters", I write some and post so expect nothing but if you insist, expect several chapters in each update. Moreover, I realized ffnet deleted my formatting for some reason so I will be updating the first five chapters too. Also, I have six more half-written stories but I will try to complete this one first. Lastly, some changes that you see in this story to the original material are all from my other stories that I am basically field testing here. Anyways, on with the story.
"What do you think The Old Big Beard hides behind the door?" asked a voice hiding in an alcove behind a tall lit brazier.
A weirdly similar voice responded few metres away. "Maybe his sweets stash. Now that would be a great hit, don't you think, George?" Harry chose to ignore the playful lilt in the question and continued to follow the twosome under his cloak.
The Weasley twins were Third Year students only but somehow managed to gain reputation as slightly bothersome pranksters among the students. Yet, their reputation mattered little for Harry. They were great associates for his plan.
He found them sneaking around one of the staircases going up to third floor hunched above a piece of tatty parchment conspiring which way would be the safest to the Forbidden Corridor. 'I won't have to influence them in any way. This is great.' was his first thought as he started to follow them.
Several painful minutes of watching them snaking towards the end of the corridor, the twins and their unknown associate reached their destination.
The corridor ended in a dead end with a suspiciously inconspicuous wooden door.
"Do you hear anything?" asked the twin who Harry thought must be Fred Weasley. The other twin's response was just head shake in negative. Then continued, "You ready?"
Now, Harry would warn the twins of alarm wards, botched thus fatal security wards and all other usages of magic he was sure that the twins did not know but he didn't. He just took a couple of steps away from the door and waited.
George Weasley slowly opened the door and whispered, "Huh, it is not locked." mirroring Harry's own thoughts.
Then a rattling sound came from the inside. The unmistakable sound of heavy metal chains. As George Weasley opened the door completely, the three students faced the source of the sound.
A Cerberus.
Harry didn't know if all Cerberuses were this big. Scratch that, he didn't know they were real to begin with. But the thing inside was huge.
Harry thought 'The teeth are easily bigger than me.' and mentally patted himself in the back for putting a distance between himself and the door.
The twins, however, were not that lucky. The beast who was now almost fully awaken saw them at the door. After blinking, the beast started to growl. One of the twins cursed "Oh shite!" the moment the beast snapped at the door with his middle head and started to bark.
As the twins wrestled with the door to close it and fail, Harry saw a closed trapdoor under the beast's huge body.
As the twins abandoned trying to close the door and started to run back to the entrance of the corridor, Harry thought 'What are you playing at Dumbledore?'
The moment he heard the door to the corridor snap shut behind the twins, the beast huffed and went back to napping on the trap door. The suspiciously unlocked door to the beast's chamber magically swung and shut itself too.
Giving in to his curiosity, Harry walked towards the door slowly and started to try to detect if there were any wards on the door.
Minutes passed; he could feel there was something on the door but the magic on the door was like a freshly caught fish unlike the tracking charm on his cloak. He wondered whom Dumbledore wanted to detect. At the end, he gave up. Cursing old bearded men, he turned around to leave the corridor and tripped on something. When he looked down, he let out a small laugh.
"So, this is how you sneak around." spoke to himself and pocketed what seemed to be another copy of the Map.
The way back to his dorm was quiet which let Harry plan his way into what seemed to be the only exciting part of the school.
Harry spent the rest of the holiday trying to find something to help his quest which led to his current sour mood. Make no mistake, the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library and the mind of the giant Groundskeeper were incredibly helpful. However, the more he learned from the library and realized how little he knew about magic, the more he doubted his skill.
Therefore, it was pretty natural that the last day of the holiday found Harry pacing back and forth in his room and talking to himself.
"Why cannot it be like before? I was a god. I was THE God. I could do everything and anything."
A few tours in silence.
"How dare he? How can he? I will show him."
A few more tours.
"His weak, puny, ridiculous wards will be nothing when I am done."
Thus, Harry's quest to break into the Forbidden Corridor turned into surpassing Albus Dumbledore.