Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 8: Gifts

The weeks continued to pass and the Christmas holidays were quickly approaching. Enchanted snow fell from the ceilings and tinsel filled the halls; Hogwarts had been transformed into a winter wonderland. The winter season arriving meant that the four gryffindors would soon be catching the Hogwarts express back home to their families.

As excited as Nell and Harry were to see their parents, a part of them didn't ever want to leave Hogwarts again. It had barely been a term and they already loved it. The grounds, their friends, their teachers (excluding Snape). They still couldn't understand his seemingly unwarranted hostility towards them. He already given them two more detentions: both just as random and unfair as the first one.

"You three really need to pack, in fact you'd should have done it days ago. We leave tomorrow morning!" Hermione pestered the other three as they made their way back to the common room after dinner.

"Yes Hermione, we know plus-", Nell's reply was cut of by a massive creaking sound and a violent rumble coming from beneath them. They looked around, searching for the source of the noise, before the staircase they occupied began to move. As they clung onto the large stone banister, the steps continued to swerve until they had spun almost 180 degrees round, now leading to an entirely different hallway.

The four quickly ran into the hallway, fearing the stairs would start to move again. Their fears were confirmed as the steps began to turn away from them, only what they hadn't realised was that this had left them stranded.

"Wait a minute. Isn't this the corridor Dumbledore warned everyone about?" Harry looked around at the stone walls surrounding them as they moved further into the passageway. He was right, Dumbledore had explicitly mentioned this corridor was out of bounds in his start of year speech, and yet here the four were, with no other way to go.

"Wonderful, another rule we've broken." Hermione huffed and crossed her arms, refusing to go as far into the corridor as the others had.

"Relax Mione, it's just a corridor.".
Nell continued to move further in as the two boys also came to a halt, her curiosity taking over. Once she reached a certain point the torches on the walls all lit at once, revealing more of the corridor and causing them to all jump.

"Yeah, a corridor which will supposedly bring death to anyone who enters, like us!" Ron whimpered, moving closer to Harry, not liking the idea of 'dying a most painful death' as Dumbledore had put it.

"Well we're in it, and do you see anything trying to murder us?" She continued to move deeper into the now illuminated section.

"Let's just go back." Harry suggested, not liking how far away Nell was getting from the rest of them. Deciding he was probably right, Nell rejoined the others and they began to head back to the entrance to see if the staircase has returned. They soon realised it had when Mrs Norris, Filch's cat, turned the corner into the hallway, her owner's footsteps following closely behind.

"Oh no. It's Mrs Norris!" Ron whispered, backing away as the cat moved closer. They froze the moment filch's shadow begin to emerge into the corridor, "Run.".

All at once they began to sprint towards the other end of the passage, desperate for somewhere to hide. Just before Filch spotted them they reached a large wooden door that was bolted shut. "Quick, in here!"

Nell went to push against the door but it wouldn't budge because of the bolt, "It's locked!"

Hermione moved in front of her, pulling her wand out of her pocket and pointing it at the door. "Alohamora." The bolt clicked and the door began to creak open, but just as they were about to rush inside a loud growl came from behind the door. As the door continued to open a giant monstrous dog revealed itself, it's three jaws snapping at the kids as it let out a series of aggressive barks.