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Through the Trap Door
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Harry began to walk around the Hogwarts grounds more often. He had gotten used to using the map and entered Hogsmeade even though no student blow third year was allowed to. He had many close calls when was in the library and had the cloak off so he could read better. Reading often reminded him of Hermione, and then he would feel a pang of guilt for treating her the way he is now. He was longing to talk to her, and then started doubting the hat for putting him into Gryffindor.
The next mourning he left his bed half awake. Just as he entered the common room, he bumped into the last person he was prepared to talk to. Hermione. He quickly helped her pick up her books and tried to make a quick escape.
"Harry, wait, we need to talk," Hermione's said this quite hoarsely, she had gotten quite little sleep due to the debating of consciences.
"What about?" Harry eyed to his sides, hoping for some distraction to break his tension.
"I'm sorry for calling you a jerk and leaving you to clean all of North Tower yourself, Okay! I'm sorry, there I apologized, happy?" Hermione continued.
*She doesn't sound terribly apologetic…* Harry thought.
"Look, I don't apologize much, so I'm not good at it." Hermione said, sticking her tongue out at the end.
Harry couldn't help but laugh at the face she made. *How did she know what I was thinking? *
"Um, mind-reading charm," Hermione blushed, "Don't worry, it doesn't stops working as soon as the victim thinks of something the victim believes to be personal."
Harry didn't like the way she had said victim and felt betrayed, but he would be insane if he let this ruin their friendship again.
"Okay, I forgive ya," Harry said with a smile, "Now lets go to breakfast before Ron eats all of our share." Hermione laughed for the first time in weeks.
"Hey, I resent that!" Ron argued when he reentered the common room. "I came to check up on you two, and I didn't eat all of your breakfast. I merely ate three fourths of it." Ron blushed, and the two doubled up in laughter.
On their way to the Great Hall, the three walked into Percy, Ron's older brother, kissing some other prefect. "Ewww," they murmured and snickered off away. It was probably due to this distracting sight that made them take the wrong turn. "
"May I?" Ron said and opened the door in front of them, which they believed was the entrance to the Great Hall. The first thing to greet them was a gigantic three-headed dog. The right head gave a bone chilling bark and the middle give a skin crawling howl. The three frightened students quickly ran in the direction they came from when the mutant dog charged at them. Just as one of its heads was about to pass the door, Harry slammed the door on the dog's nose and ran to join his friends to catch their breath.
"Lets do that again!" Ron said once he regained his composure.
"No, we could die!" Hermione argued.
"Aww, where is you sense of adventure and courage Hermione?" Harry joined in the debate. "The daughter of Ethan isn't scared is she?"
"I-I'm not afraid, I'm just- I just don't like breaking rules" Hermione said starring at the ground as if something interesting was happening there. "Oh, would you look at the time, its time for potions, now lets hurry along, we don't want to miss potions do we?"
*Oh, noooo, it's our favorite class in the world; we wouldn't miss it for the world. * Harry thought sarcastically and Hermione giggled. "Would you stop reading my mind, it's getting rather annoying you know!"
"Sorry," her face went into a slight shade of pink and she pointed her wand on herself, and flicked and swished. "Done, now lets go to class before we get any more detentions."
Potions were more tolerable for Harry and Hermione since they could talk to each other with a weird tension in-between them. Which was a lucky break because Snape has been setting them up as potion partners ever since he learned of their argument.
For the past week, they have been working on a potion called, "The All Seeing" potion. It allows the drinker to see every angle from him or herself. Auror used it all the time just before they head out on missions in case of sneak attacks or spies. Neville, however managed to make his eyes move to the back of his head, taking away ten points from Gyrffindor, however Malfoy also made this mistake, but earned Slytherin twenty points for doing something clever, this made all of Gryffindor glare at Snape.
"Lousy housist git. Dumbledore opt to fire that old goon. He is so unfair." Ron spat.
"Ron, as much as I agree with you for once, housist is not a word, Snape is just doing his job, no matter how badly he is treating us." Hermione stated in a saddening tone.
"What do you think a three headed dog is doing in Hogwarts indoors?" Harry questioned nobody in particular trying to change the subject.
"Well, for something that dangerous, probably to keep it somewhere it most likely wouldn't do damage, even though it almost killed us. Or it may have been there to guard something. I guess we could check it out again." Hermione was eager to prove she had enough courage to be placed in Gyrffindor.
"So lets go back there tonight then?" Harry and Ron asked in a singsong voice.
"Fine, 10 o'clock when everybody is asleep." Hermione crumpled under the boys' pressure. Harry and Ron exchanged low-fives when she wasn't paying attention.
They waited as one by one, the Gryffindor students, left the dormitories and headed for their respected rooms. As the grandfather clock chimed 10 o'clock, Dean Thomas got out of the sofa and stretched, "I'm going to bed, it's getting rather late, and you three should too. Good night."
"I think I'll go get my invisibility cloak, it would help us get past prefects and worse, teachers, when we go through the halls." When he came down with his invisibility cloak, he found Ron humming "Mary had a Little Lamb" repeatedly.
"Don't ask," Hermione said and headed for the portrait, "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"
Ron glared at Hermione but went along, still humming. Once they were all under the cloak, they headed for the forbidden corridor. The short trip was rather annoying while Ron was humming, but Harry thought it would be best if he didn't ask.
Ron tried to say, "May I?" but all that came out where hums. He gave Hermione another glare, but opened the door anyway. When they opened the door, Ron was humming extra louder due to his frightened state, but only saw a sleeping three-headed dog.
Hermione tapped Harry on the shoulders, and pointed at a trap door on the floor. "Lumos" Harry whispered, hoping not to wake the dog. The way the trap door lead seemed to have no end. "Well, only one way to find out," he got his legs ready for a long fall, then Hermione grabbed his arm.
"Um, be careful, okay?"
Harry gave her a quick smile and jumped. He landed on something rather soft, but not thick enough to break his fall completely. "It's okay! There is cushion to break the fall!" Harry yelled out, during mid sentence, Hermione already made her jump.
"Finally, the curse is over." Ron muttered to himself, not a second later, the three headed dog growled and apparently awakened. Before Ron's brain could accumulate, his body's instincts kicked in and made a jump. "They really need to let that dog outside," Ron said as he landed.
"Come on, the door is right over there, Nox!" Harry's wand's light stopped. He opened the door and saw many birds flying above the next door. As soon as all three of them stepped into the next room, the door behind them closed and the glittering birds flew at them. From a closer look, they noticed they were keys. With more observation… "They aren't stopping!" Harry yelled, and they took a dive.
They ran quickly for the other door but soon found out it was locked. They quickly split up when they keys caught up to them. Several of the keys continued in momentum, crashed and got stuck into the door. The keys were getting faster by the second. The three ran around in circles like three blind mice. They reached the door again and Hermione finally figured out a spell to stop the keys. "Impedimenta!" she yelled with her wand in the air. They keys all froze in their place, not moving an inch.
"One of these keys must open the door, by the looks of it, I'd say it is an old one, silver in color, like the lock." Ron began speculating.
"Over there!" Harry pointed at a giant silver key with blue wings not a second later. "But how do we get to it? Ron, I'll lift you up."
"Boys," Hermione rolled her eyes, "Accio Key!" She pointed at the blue-winged key and it went straight to her left hand. "When you need something done, you can usually depend on magic," she said waving her wand.
"Easy for you to say, you are the genius," Harry said and pushed the door as soon as Hermione turned the key. Just as they stepped into the next room, one by one, they keys were freed from the curse and started heading for them. Harry and Ron quickly shut the wooden door behind them. They later head what seemed like ten thousand woodpeckers on a single tree.
They took in a few breaths from the adrenaline that was pumping within them and finally looked around in the room they were in. It was a giant chessboard with pieces aimlessly moving around and showed no sign of noticing them or any expression for that matter. They edged pass them in case touching them would startle another obstacle and entered the next room with ease.
They looked around this room, it was completely empty and so was the next room with the exception of potions. The room after that was different. It had different, giant decorations at different corners. Each corner representing a Hogwarts house; Lion, Eagle, Badger, and Snake. There showed no signs of another door on any of the walls, ceiling, or floor. There was however, a mirror in the middle.
Harry looked at the mirror. He saw himself, with his parents and ancestors behind him, a big question mark to the left of his reflection, and 2 small question marks in front of his reflection. Hermione looked in the mirror. She saw herself older and with a certain male beside her. Ron looked in the mirror; he saw himself older, alone, and his parents behind him.
Hermione looked at the rim on top of the mirror, the words, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" engraved upon it. "I heard of this mirror! It is called the Mirror of Erised, it was made when a young price who wanted to ask for a princess' hand in marriage. The king, father of the princess, wouldn't have any of it, and said she was to marry a wealthier prince. The prince however wouldn't give up, and asked a druid to create this mirror to show the king. Since the king was greedy, he accepted this gift and let the prince marry his daughter. However the king later on became mad and looked at the mirror constantly. His greed later on became too unbearable and died of starvation."
Harry listens thoroughly and began to wonder what it really does and what it was doing there. (A/n: Okay, here is where it gets confusing.) He looked into the mirror again, this time, it showed himself looking at the mirror and the reflection of the mirror within the mirror grinned at the reflection of the regular Harry. The reflection of the mirror within the mirror then put his hand into the back pocket and pulled out a red stone and put it back in. Whilst doing so, Harry noticed the reflection of his real self dropping a lump into his back pocket, and then noticing something actually did drop into his pocket. (Whew, confusing part over.)