Chapter Summary: Hermione's outing with Harry, Ron and Neville where they first get to meet our favorite three headed dog.
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There were many things in the magical world that Hermione was grateful for, and one of them happened to be the silencing charm. She had learned very quickly that Lavender's snores rivaled that of a jet engine. Parvati could sleep through the third world war so it never bothered her, but after reading "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Hermione was sure that Lavender's snores were far worse than the maddening song of the African Fwooper. So she quickly learned how to cast a silencing spell and it had worked wonders for their sleeping arrangements, so long as Lavender never found out.
Still, this particular night, Hermione couldn't sleep even with the silencing charm blocking Lavender's snores. The events of the day were still rolling through her mind.
As it had turned out, Harry Potter hadn't gotten in trouble for his antics in the courtyard. Professor McGonagall had instead gotten special permission from the headmaster for Harry to join the house Quidditch team as seeker. He needed special permission to do this because first years weren't even allowed to have a broom let alone join their house teams.
Hermione thought back to Pansy's words on the train ride, "…and just because of some fluke when he was a baby, he'll probably get special treatment from the professors." She hated to admit it, but Pansy was right.
Hermione sighed. She knew that she was jealous. She was jealous of Harry Potter for being so famous and so loved, and so happy while she was stuck being invisible and miserable. Okay, so it wasn't Harry's fault that he was popular. He hadn't even known who he was until this year, right? So why did it bother her so much?
She rolled over in bed. It had to be what happened at dinner that night. It was then that she realized how reckless and self-centered Harry and Ron really were. They had challenged Malfoy and one of his cronies to a wizard's duel at midnight. Harry was going to break the one rule that Hogwarts professors, especially McGonagall, held sacred: students were not to be out of bed after their curfew.
This was all Ron's fault, Hermione decided immediately. Ron was Harry's best friend and she could tell that he was constantly pushing Harry in the wrong direction. Hermione had watched as Ron, not Harry arranged the midnight wizard's duel. He was just trying to ride Harry's coattails and what better way to do that then to push him into being the "hero" that everyone expected him to be. Each harebrained scheme that Harry got away with made him more popular and that made Ron more popular for being his best friend. And what did it matter to Ron if Harry finally got in trouble or hurt for listening to him?
This stupid wizard's duel, it was a trick and she knew it. Malfoy had no intention of going. Hermione had overheard him and Pansy laughing about how they'd figure out a way to get Harry in trouble. She'd tried several times to talk them out of it, but they wouldn't listen. Apparently the more popular Harry became, the more unpopular she became. It was a terrible reality she only just beginning to face.
She rolled over again. "So what if I'm bossy, I know I'm right. He shouldn't be dong this. He'll get in trouble; Gryffindor will get in trouble, and for what? So Harry and Ron can get just a bit more fame."
Hermione sat up and looked at her watch; it was nearly time. She couldn't sleep; not until she stopped them. She climbed out of bed and pulled a pink bathrobe over her nightgown. Then she snuck quietly out the door and down the stairs to the common room.
No sooner had she found a seat in one of the large armchairs did she hear the sound of feet descending the opposite stairway. It was Ron and Harry. She was half hoping they'd chickened out. Now she really was going to have to confront them. This would definitely get ugly.
They didn't even notice her as they walked towards the portal. So she flicked on a lamp and called out to them. "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."
The look on Ron's face was a mixture of anger and shock. Harry, as usual, was hard to read, but it almost seemed as if he couldn't believe he was doing this himself. Perhaps he felt guilty about breaking two school rules in one day. Maybe there was still a chance to talk him out of it.
Ron started hissing at her to go to bed and soon they were arguing. "I almost told your brother you know," she countered. Ron knew that Percy had befriended the young witch and probably would have believed her if she told on them. In truth, Hermione had never had any intentions on telling Percy; she just liked seeing Ron squirm.
Harry had made up his mind. "Come on," He told Ron as he pushed open the portal to the corridor.
Hermione followed after them, jumbled thoughts swirling around her head. Why was it that no one ever listened to her? It was bad enough that she was constantly fighting with this brainless git, Ron, but she was beginning to notice that Harry always acted as if the only person that was there was his best friend. He didn't have the decency to tell her off himself. Ron did almost all his yelling for him. At least Harry gave Malfoy the courtesy of speaking to him when he was mad at him. She was lucky if Harry told her to shove off. Did that make her even lower than Malfoy that Harry didn't even waste words on her?
"Can't he tell that I'm just worried about him? He should be glad someone is worried about him, goodness knows Ron isn't."
She was still arguing with Ron. "Go, away!" He told her for the second time.
What was the use, Harry wasn't even listening. Why should she even bother caring? If they lost points for the house for this little stunt, maybe they wouldn't be as popular tomorrow morning. She'd had enough of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. She wasn't going to lose anymore sleep over these two idiots. "All right, but I warned you," she said with a hiss. "You just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow."
She turned on her heels to reenter the common room, but the portrait hole had swung shut and the Gryffindor guardian, the Fat Lady, was gone. Without their guardian in the picture, Hermione was trapped outside.
"Now what am I going to do?" she said with a sigh.
Behind her she heard Ron say, "That's your problem," as he and Harry started down the corridor.
Hermione stood at the portrait, fuming. She could stay and wait for the Fat Lady to return. It seemed the most logical thing to do, but then an idea hit her.
There was a very good chance that Harry and Ron would get caught; she knew it. They'd get detention, or points taken, or some sort of punishment, but if she were with them… she knew enough spells and secrets about Hogwarts to keep them all out of trouble. She could see it now. They'd be walking down a hall, and Filch or his cat Mrs. Norris would spot them. Then Hermione would use some clever trick to avoid getting caught.
"Hermione that was great," she imagined Harry saying after they narrowly avoided detention. "We'd have been caught if it wasn't for your quick thinking. Ron and I would have never been able to do that. You're so amazing. I should never have listened to Ron and snuck out tonight anyway. You were right." She smiled to herself. Perhaps it wouldn't go quite that well but it was possible.
She spun on her heels and ran after them.
"I'm coming with you," she announced as she caught up with them.
As expected, Ron started in on her. "You are not!"
"Do you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me?" she asked him. "If he finds all three of us…" she quickly made up a fake excuse. "I'll tell him the truth: that I was trying to stop you and you can back me up." Hermione held back a smile as she watched Ron's eyes grow with shock and surprise. She liked pushing this boy's buttons. She wondered if that meant she had a sadistic side.
"You've got some nerve," he sputtered.
Another fight would have ensued if Harry hadn't shushed them both. "I heard something."
They crept slowly towards the noise. "Mrs. Norris?" Ron said breathlessly.
As it turned out, the noise was Neville's soft snoring. He'd been locked out of Gryffindor tower all night. "Why can't I have him for a roommate?" Hermione thought absentmindedly as Neville jerked awake, "he doesn't snore nearly as loud."
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It was a group of four that now silently swept through the dark castle. Ron was fuming by now. Hermione was silently running through all the spells she could think of in anticipation of having to use one to get them out of a jam. Now that Neville was in the group, things could get tricky. He had a tendency of being clumsy.
"Where are we going?" Neville finally asked Hermione in a barely audible whisper as they headed up a flight of stairs.
"Ron and Harry challenged Malfoy to a wizards duel," she explained quietly so that the others couldn't hear her, "but Malfoy isn't really going to show up. Instead, Ron and Harry are going to get caught out of bed after curfew and get us all in trouble."
"Oh… I see… I think." Neville said slowly.
They'd reached the trophy room. It was the moment of truth. Hermione sighed as she watched Harry preparing for Malfoy's arrival. She knew they wouldn't have to wait long, and that it wouldn't be Malfoy arriving.
Sure enough, after several long minutes of waiting, they heard a noise in the other room. It came so suddenly that Hermione almost jumped out of her skin. It wasn't Filch, it wasn't Mrs. Norris, it was Filch and Mrs. Norris.
Harry started out the room quickly and quietly with the others in tow. They could hear Filch urging Mrs. Norris on. He was getting closer. Hermione began to think furiously. It was her time to shine, but how would she get the four of them out of this.
They were headed down a long corridor full of suits of armor. Then it came to her. Hogwarts had a lot of secret corridors and rooms, some of which still hadn't been discovered, but she'd read about a few of the more well known ones in "Ancient Magical Buildings and the Secrets They Hold." This corridor had a secret passageway behind a suit of armor they could escape through. They were getting close to it. All she needed to do was get the others to follow her.
She tapped on Neville's shoulder to get his attention but this was a big mistake. Neville was so jumpy that the moment he felt Hermione's touch he let out a squeal and started running. He tripped over Ron and they went toppling into the suit of armor just before the one rumored to be concealing the passage.
Hermione could have killed him for his stupidity. Instead of successfully sneaking away and her being a hero, they were forced to make a mad dash down the hall. She had no idea where they were going. It seemed that Harry's only plan was to get as far away from Filch as possible. At some point they went through another secret passageway behind a tapestry. Hermione was familiar with this one as well, but she had long since abandoned her plans of saving the day.
They stopped near their charms classroom. Hermione had never run so hard in her life and vaguely remembered why she hated gym at her former school. She was in a very bad mood now. "I told you," she started in on Harry. "Malfoy tricked you. You realize 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."
"This is the part where you say, 'You're right Hermione I should have listened to you,'" she added silently to herself, but she knew that wasn't coming.
Harry gave her a look that told her all too well that he knew she was dead right, but instead of admitted it he turned to Ron and said, "Let's go."
"One of these days, you're going to have to speak to me, Harry Potter." Hermione thought. "And it'll be more than just to tell me to sod off."
She was about to mentally tell off Harry some more but her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Peeves the resident Hogwarts poltergeist.
Upon seeing the foursome, he let out a squeal that was louder than the noise that Ron and Neville had made earlier when they crashed into the suit of armor.
"Shut up, Peeves, please," Harry pleaded. "You'll get us thrown out."
"Oh now he worries about getting thrown out." Hermione thought irritably. She knew how to handle the poltergeist. She'd read all about them in "Ghouls, Trolls, and Other Household Pests." She just needed her wand. Hermione reached inside her bathrobe and realized for the first time that she hadn't thought to bring her wand. She was about to ask Harry for his when Ron made the biggest mistake of the night. He tried to take a swipe at Peeves.
"Oh here we go!" Hermione thought as Peeves began to sound the alarm. They took off down the hall again until they reached a locked door.
Ron was trying desperately to open it, but it was spelled shut. "We're done for," he said frantically. "This is it." They heard the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer.
It was then that Hermione realized that this was her chance. This was the moment she had been waiting for, her chance to save the day.
Wasting no time, she pushed Ron out of the way, grabbed Harry's wand and pointed it at the lock. "Alohomora." The door opened. They raced inside and shut it quietly behind them.
Hermione smiled with self-satisfaction as she slipped Harry's wand back in his hand. She had done it. "Not exactly as I planned, but it worked. I proved how useful I can be." Now all she had to do was wait for Harry to congratulate her for her brilliance.
She turned around to take a good look at the room they were in and froze. They weren't in a room; they were in another corridor, a corridor with a three-headed dog, a three-headed dog that was so massive, it looked as if it could eat her in one bite. Hermione heard Neville whimpering beside her, but she was frozen in panic.
"Okay, Hermione, don't panic. It's a three headed dog, you should know something about this." But nothing came to mind. None of the books she had read including, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" had ever mentioned anything about giant three-headed dogs. She stared at it from heads to toe. It was standing on a trap door. Hermione did a double take.
"What's a trap door doing under a giant three-headed dog? Better yet, what is a giant three headed dog doing in a school. Did I miss some announcement about a giant three-headed dog? Why can't I move? I really really want to move or at least say something. I should say something. This isn't at all what I had planned. I was supposed to be saving us from detention, not getting us killed."
She felt Harry grab her arm as he toppled out the door. Apparently Neville had finally gotten his attention. Hermione didn't know. All she knew now was that she had to run, run as fast as she could away from the monstrous dog.
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All in all, the night had turned out to be far worst than the previous day. Hermione was in a really bad mood now. She was glad to be back in the safety of the common room again, but she was also mad, mostly at herself for thinking it was a good idea to go gallivanting around the school in the middle of the night with the three stooges. Instead of being the hero for once, she was now the girl who almost got them killed. What a great way to be remembered.
Neville looked like he'd never recover from the shock but after a while Ron and Harry began discussing the giant dog, trying to figure out where it had come from and why it was there.
Hermione had finally had enough. She told them about the trap door. She had been the only one staring long enough to actually take in the entire scene. It was obvious that the dog was guarding something. She felt her temper rising and her ranting was definitely reflecting this, so she decided to head to bed before she got in another fight with Ron.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves," she said to Ron as she stood. In her mind, this was still all his fault. "We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled." She realized too late that she had gotten the order wrong but she was too mad to care. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." She stormed up the stairs, ignoring Ron's snide response.
"I'm never doing this again. Next time, I'll just let them get in trouble or killed by a giant three-headed dog. Being popular just isn't worth this kind of madness."
As if things hadn't gone badly enough, Hermione realized immediately when she entered her room that the silencing charm had worn off.