What I'm Looking For...

It was about twenty-five past eleven, and everyone was asleep. I sighed as I got up and put my big, fluffy jersey on. I tip toed to the stairs, trying not to wake anyone. Once at the bottom of the spiral staircase, in the Gryffindor common-room, I found Harry and Ron just coming down the stairs as well; in their dressing-gowns.

A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace; turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. We nodded at each other, and made our way over to the portrait hole. When we had almost reached it, a voice spoke from the closest chair.

“I can’t believe you’re going to do this, Harry”

A lamp flicked on and in the chair sat Hermione, in a pink dressing-gown and a frown.
“You!” said Ron furiously. “Go back to bed!”

“I almost told your brother,” Hermione snapped, “Percy – he’s a prefect, he’d put a stop to this.”

“Come on,” I said to the boys, I pushed the painting of the fat lady open and climbed through the hole. Hermione wasn’t going to give up that easily and followed Harry and Ron through the portrait hole.

“Don’t you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don’t want Slytherin to win the house cup and you’ll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells” She hissed at us like an angry goose.

“Go away”

“All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you’re on the train home tomorrow, you’re so – “

Hermione turned around to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a night-time visit and she was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

“Now what am I going to do?” she asked shrilly.

“That’s your problem” said Ron. “We’ve got to go; we’re going to be late”

The three of us walked down the corridor but before we’d even reached the end, Hermione caught up to us.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“No, you are not” I said.

“D’you think I’m going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I’ll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up”

“You’ve got some nerve – ” Said Ron loudly.

“Shut up, both of you!” I snapped sharply, “I think I heard something”

There was a sort of shuffling and we all squinted into the dark.

“Mrs Norris?” Breathed Ron.

As I inched closer, I saw Neville, curled up on the floor, fast asleep. He jerked awake as we crept forward.

“Thank goodness you found me! I’ve been out here for hours; I couldn’t remember the new password to get to bed.”

“Keep your voice down, Neville. The password’s ‘Pig snout’ but it won’t help you now; the Fat Lady’s gone off somewhere.” Said Harry. “How’s your arm?”

“Fine,” said Neville, showing us. “Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute.”

“Good – well, look, Neville, we’ve got to be somewhere, we’ll see you later – ” I started to say.

“Don’t leave me!” said Neville, scrambling to his feet, “I don’t want to stay out here alone, the Bloody Baron’s been past twice already.” Ron looked at his watch before glaring furiously a Hermione and Neville.

“If either of you get us caught, I’ll never rest until I’ve learnt that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you.” He snapped.

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell him how to use the Curse, but I gave her a warning look, and Harry hissed at her to be quiet. I walked ahead of them and beckoned them after me. I used one of the passage ways the twins had shown me, to get us to the trophy room quicker.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren’t there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them; cups, shields, plates and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. We edged along the walls, keeping an eye on each door at opposite sides of the room. The minutes slowly went by, and Harry clutched his wand tightly.

“Bloody Malfoy,” I muttered under my breath.

“He’s late, maybe he’s chickened out,” Ron whispered.

A noise in the room next to us, made everyone jump. Harry raised his wand, and I pulled mine out of my jersey pocket. A voice spoke – and it wasn’t Malfoy.

“Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner.”

It was Filch, speaking to Mrs Norris. Harry waved madly for us to follow him as quickly as possible; and we scurried silently towards the door away from Filch’s voice. Neville’s robes had barely whipped around the corner when I heard Filch enter the trophy room.

“They’re in here somewhere” I heard him mutter, “Probably hiding.”

“This way!” Harry mouthed at us, and began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour. I could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run – he tripped, grabbing Ron around the waist and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armour. I swear, the clanging and crashing was enough to wake the whole castle.
“RUN!” I yelled, and we all sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following – we swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another; Harry and I in the lead without any idea where we were or where we were going – we ripped through a tapestry and found ourselves in a hidden passageway, one the twins hadn’t shown me.

We hurtled along it and came out near our Charms classroom, which was miles away from the trophy room.

“Do you think we’ve lost him?” I panted, leaning against a wall next to Harry, who was wiping the sweat of his forehead. He nodded his head, while Neville bent over double, wheezing and spluttering.

“I – told – you,” Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, “I – told – you.”

“We’ve got to get back to Gryffindor tower,” said Ron, “quickly as possible.”

“Malfoy tricked you,” Hermione said to Harry. “You realise that, don’t you? He was never going to meet you – Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room; Malfoy must have tipped him off.”

Harry had a stern look on his face.

“I find her as annoying and this is hard for me to say, believe me, but, she’s right. He was never going to come” I whispered into his ear, before turning to everyone else. “Let’s go.”
It wasn’t going to be that simple, though. We hadn’t gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of us. Peeves. He caught sight of us and gave a squeal of delight.

“Shut up, Peeves – you’ll get us thrown out.”

Peeves cackled.

“Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you’ll get caughty.”

“Not if you don’t give us away, Peeves, please.”

“Should tell Filch, I should,” Said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. “It’s for your own good, you know.”

“Get out of the way,” Snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves – which was a big mistake.
“STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!” Bellowed Peeves.

“I’ll get you for this, Peeves” I hissed, as we ducked under him, before running for our lives, down the corridor, slamming into a locked door.

“This is it!” Ron moaned, as we pushed helplessly against the door. “We’re done for. This is the end!”

I could hear Filch’s footsteps, as he ran as fast as he could to Peeves’ shouts.

“Oh, move over,” Hermione snarled. She grabbed my wand, tapped the lock and whispered; “ Alohomora!”

The lock clicked and the door swung open – we pilled through quickly, shutting the door behind us, and pressing our ears to the door to listen.

“Which was did they go, Peeves?” Filch asked, “Quick, tell me.”

“Say ‘please’.”

“Don’t mess me about, Peeves, now where did they go?”

“Shan’t say nothing if you don’t say please,” said Peeves in his annoying sing-song voice.

“All right – please.”

“NOTHING! Ha haa! Told you I wouldn’t say nothing if you didn’t say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!” I heard Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in range.

“He thinks this door is locked,” I whispered “I think we’ll be OK”

“Get off, Neville!” Harry exclaimed, while Neville continued to pull on his sleeve. “What?”
We turned around, and my eyes grew wide. We weren’t in a room, we were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And we now knew why it was so forbidden.

We were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog which filled the whole space between the ceiling and the floor, and had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in our direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at us, and I knew then that the only reason that the only reason we weren’t dead was because we’d caught it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over it, and it was never a good sign when a dog started to make thunderous growling noises.

I reached for the door handle; if it was between Filch and death; I’d choose Filch. I stumbled out the door before they all fell backwards, and I slammed the door shut. We ran a million miles an hour, back down the corridor. Filch must’ve gone somewhere else to look for us, because we didn’t see him the whole time on the way back up to the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

“Where on earth have you been?” She asked, looking at the others dressing robes which were hanging of their shoulders, and our flushed, sweaty faces.

“Never mind that! Pig snout, pig snout!” I panted quickly, and the portrait swung open. We climbed through into the common-room, before collapsing into armchairs. It was a while before any of us said anything, and Neville looked like he’d never say anything ever again.
“What do they think they’re doing, keeping a thing like that in our school?” I said. “If any dog needs to run around and get some exercise; it’s that one.”

“You don’t use your eyes do you, any of you, do you?” She snapped. It looked like not only her breath was back; her bad temper was also regained. “Didn’t you see what it was standing on?”

“The floor?” Harry suggested. “I wasn’t looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads.”

“If you didn’t notice; it had three of them!” I exclaimed.

“No, not the floor.” She said, ignoring my comment, “It was standing on a trapdoor. It’s obviously guarding something.”

She stood up glaring at us.

“I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.”

Ron stared after her, his mouth open.

“No we don’t mind,” he said. “You’d think we dragged her along, wouldn’t you?”

After that we all went to bed, and while I stared at her back, I let my mind wonder about what Hermione had said before. What was that thing hiding?