Within You, Without You

I grabbed Fred and went back into the shadows behind the armoured knight with him. The space was tight, and we were literally pushed up against each other, my face right at the bottom of his neck. I would have been embarrassed if there wasn't such high stakes at getting caught and getting in trouble. I didn't want to get in trouble within a week of going here, not yet.

"Wow Lucy I-" Fred started saying in a joking manner, but I quickly shushed him by putting my index finger on his mouth "Be quiet. Mrs. Norris is coming," I whispered as silently as possible. At that sentence, he went completely still, as did I. I wanted to move my hand, but I could see the shadow of that damned cat by now, and I was afraid of her hearing the slightest movement.

The cat came into view, and then footsteps were heard coming from the direction that she came. I did everything but stop breathing, and even that I slowed down completely.

"Did you find the people that set off those nasty walking dungbombs, Mrs. Norris? After we find that rotten scoundrel and deal with them accordingly, we'll be able to sit down to our super. How does that sound?" Filch said lovingly to his cat, who meowed in response.

Fred moved slightly, and I looked up at him and saw that he had his eyes closed and he was trying to keep a laugh down. Oh god, this will not end well.

Filch and Mrs. Norris walked past us and kept on their way of going up the astronomy tower. I sighed mentally in relief that Fred didn't start cracking up and that we weren't caught. Slowly, I moved my hand back down and Fred started getting himself out of the shadows. He misjudged his step though, because the next thing I heard was his foot hitting the suit of armour quite audibly. We both froze and stared at each other, not daring to breathe, when suddenly we heard Mrs. Norris meow.

"Let's go!" Fred whispered excitedly to me, smirking. He grabbed my hand to help pull me out from behind the armour and the next thing I knew we were making a racket running back down the corridor.

"FILTHY KIDS. I'LL GET YOU!!" Filch screamed from behind us. I tried not to laugh at this as we continued running.

"Hey Fred, we're going to the Great Hall, right?" I asked as we sprinted down the stairs.

"Yeah. Why?" He asked.

"Follow me," I said, this time it was my turn to grab his hand. We got to the moving staircases of the Grand Staircase, but instead of starting our trek down (which would surely lead to Filch spotting our heads and identifying us), I brought us across the floor and to the next corridor. If Fred was confused, he didn't voice it or show it. He trusted me with this.

We went down a hallway, and right after the first door on the left - an unused classroom, for all I know - I turned us right into the wall next to it. Fred gave a bit of a yelp of surprise, and I let go of his hand when we ended up in one of the many hidden hallways I found during my several months here alone. Still running, I took out my wand and muttered "Lumos" in order to bring some light into this dark place.

"Where are we?" Fred asked in bewilderment. I heard stories of the Weasley twins knowing every secret in this place. I smiled at the fact that I just showed this one that that story was untrue.

"A hidden corridor. Come on." I stated, starting to go down the stairs.
When I was walking around the castle one time in late July, I ended up leaning against a wall and falling right through. The castle is filled with a bunch of these fake walls, I soon found out, and they all connected, were shortcuts and - from what I knew, at least - unknown to most. I knew they'd come in handy at some point, but I must admit that I didn't think they'd come in handy so quickly.
Not that I cared.

We finally got to the first level, and I directed the two of us to a wall on our left again. We went through, and ended up just to the right of the Great Hall's gigantic doors. "Nox," I whispered.

We started walking to the doors, when Fred stopped. "Wait, we have to have an alibi. What were we doing that made us late? You know Filch is going to do questioning."

We both thought for a bit. I looked outside one of the windows at the rain. "We were outside. After class I wanted to walk around the grounds, and you told me you had some stories about the giant squid to tell me about. We just lost track of time."

"It'll do."

"Aguamenti imber," I stated, holding my want directly up. Water came falling down on us like rain, soaking us.

"What was that for?!" Fred asked, looking at me with eyebrows raised.

Putting my wand away, I explained. "It's raining. If we were outside, we'd be wet. Now come on, better not be more late. Filch will catch up soon."

We both walked into the Great Hall and everyone seemed to pause what they were doing and looked at us. We just smiled, and walked to the Gryffindor table. I caught Dumbledore's eye and saw him smirking. We sat down near George, Lee, and Angelina. The Weasley's brother Ron was near us as well, along with his friends.

"What in the bloody hell happened to you two?" George asked, laughing his arse off.

"Later, George. Later," We saw Filch come in and look around at all the students that were sitting there, hoping to find ones that were just running in or sitting down. I was so grateful that I found those corridors during my summer here.

Filch looked around a bit, and then started walking straight over to us. I quickly grabbed food onto my plate and threw a forkful of whatever I could get first into my mouth.

"Where were you two?" I heard his voice from behind me say, and I gulped what I was eating down. When I turned to face him though, I realized that he wasn't looking at me at all. He was staring down Fred and George.

"I've been eating my supper. Why would you like some, sir?" George asked, gesturing to his plate. Filch frowned and looked over at Fred.

"I was outside with my friend Lucy here, and we came in just several minutes ago. Wicked storm out there," Fred answered, gesturing outside. Filch looked us both over, our hair still dripping, sneered, and stalked off. Once he was out of the Great Hall, the three of us laughed and continued eating food at a normal pace.

"Tell me, Lucy...what did you say after your Aguamenti spell?" Fred asked in between bites.

"Imber. It makes the Augmenti spell come out like raindrops instead of a full blown jet stream," I said quietly in between bite of mashed potatoes.

I kept eating but saw a couple of the people around me just looking at me apprehensively.

I smiled to myself, and we kept eating and talking. As horrible of a day and a week I was having, this kind of made it all alright. I think I just have to wedge myself into friend circles. I mean, either that or I'll have to go and hang out with First Years.
Yuck. Eleven year olds. No thank you.

We made our way back up to the Gryffindor common room after supper. I went up to my room and grabbed my old Charms book and made my way back down to the couch near the fire. I looked at the cover, brushing my hand over the title. This book was my parents. When I was brought to the orphanage, I was only allowed to bring one bag of things and then a bag of clothes. I may have only been six, but I remember my parents telling me that if I ever needed to go anywhere to bring this specific bag of theirs that they put off on the side just for me. They put a spell on it so even though it was small, it had almost infinite space in it and I was able to have all of my parent's books and even some belongings with me, even after I had to leave.

I opened the cover and skipped quickly past the first page where there was a note from my parents in case the worst happened. Which it did, I thought dryly.
Skipping to a random chapter, I started reading. The book was old - back from when they were at Hogwarts - but I loved to read it and learn from it. I spent the rest of my night reading the book and using a feather as my practice dummy for spells that called for it. Students were all around me but I really didn't pay them much attention. Throughout the night though, slowly but surely, the sound died down. I looked up from my book and realized only a couple of people were left in here. Yawning, I put my book on the sidetable and stared at the fireplace.

I felt the couch dip in weight on the other side signaling to me that someone had joined me. I turned and saw Fred sitting there, behind him Lee and George going up to their dormitories. Fred was looking at me, smiling. "You have got to tell me how you found that corridor you took us through to get us past Filch. How many are there? How did you find it?" He asked, excitedly.

I chuckled. "I stayed at Hogwarts over the summer. I got here actually a couple of days after last term. And well, I don't know. I had months in which I had to play catch up, but I also spent a good amount of time exploring. I found it on accident at first but then after a couple of weeks I found a good amount. They pretty much all connect and they act as a quick fast way to go floor to floor without having to deal with staircases randomly moving or a missing stair," I explained.

"I thought we uncovered all of the secrets of this place," Fred muttered, seeming a bit upset that someone else found something in Hogwarts that the Weasley twins didn't know about.

"There are more secrets in this place than could ever be found," I said, and he laughed in agreement. We continued to talk small talk. He told me what classes to stick with, which professors to run from, some stories of run-ins with Filch, and a whole bunch of things. I felt like he was doing this because he felt bad for how he stumbled upon my loneliness. I felt bad about that too. I was sorry that he had to see that. I was sorry if he felt that he needed to reach out to me now. I didn't want to seem a nuisance.

The talking slowed down, and I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I hope I'm not a nuisance to him, I thought in my head. My eyes began closing shut, as I felt extremely comfy on the couch. It just felt so lovely to have someone going out of their way to talk with me...It felt so lovely to run and laugh and joke and trick with someone...It felt so lovely........