The New Marauders and the Trickster God

Chapter 21: Mirror, Mirror

They carefully walked through the halls of Hogwarts to make sure that they weren't caught by a professor. No matter how unlikely it would be to meet a teacher in the middle of the night in such a giant castle.

It took them about ten minutes before standing in front of an ordinary wooden door on the third floor. Sam looked at Harry, confused, but the boy only smirked and opened the door before entering the room behind it.

Even more confused and curious, Sam followed and was surprised by the sight of a massive three-headed black dog that was currently sleeping but naturally quickly waking up.

At first, the dog snarled at them threateningly, but when it caught the scent of Harry, it transformed into a playful puppy rapidly so that Sam could only stare at it. Harry walked over and started to scratch two of the heads while the third eyed Sam critically but didn't attack.

"Sam, meet Cerb. Loki, and I found him on one of our strolls, but we have no idea how he got here or why he's even here," Harry explained. "He looks intimidating at first, but once you get into his good graces, he is quite cuddly, and playful too."

"Cerb?" Sam asked while he slowly approached the third head that sniffed at him before he licked Sam from bottom to top, covering him in slobber much to Harry's amusement.

"He likes you," he laughed before vanishing the slobber Sam now was covered in. "We called him Cerb since we don't know what his name is, and since he is a Cerberus pup, we shortened it to Cerb."

"What in the name of sanity is a hellhound of this size doing in a school? I mean what if some other student walks in here and gets attacked?"

Sam shook his head in disbelief. But he dutifully started to scratch the third head behind the ear when it began to whine pitifully.

"We have no idea, but we think it is guarding something," Harry replied. "See the trapdoor?"

Sam nodded, obviously thinking about what the secret was that the Cerberus was guarding. Still, he didn't want to explore it further, at least not now. Who knew what other dangers might lurk beyond the trapdoor. He didn't have his equipment with him right now, and he wasn't proficient enough in magic to risk it.

They were contently entertaining the puppy by scratching and rubbing certain spots when it seemed that the dog had enough and wanted to play instead.

Harry conjured a sizeable red ball with a few movements of his hand and with a push of his magic, sent it flying throughout the room. Luckily, Loki had enlarged the space enough so that they could play with the pup properly and not have to fear that it would crash into a wall every so often.

The next hour was spent playing with the dog and having much fun on both their parts. Especially Harry, who watched with satisfaction that Sam also had fun and wasn't burdened with the knowledge that his brother was in hell for at least a few hours.

"Thank you," Sam said when they finally left the puppy behind and were on their way back to the dorms. It was three in the morning, and they were both exhausted from playing with the dog so much.

"You're welcome, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help and stay with you in a time of need?" Harry snickered.

They walked in silence, each of them lost in their own thought when they became aware of the fact that they had gotten lost and weren't on their way to the dorm anymore.

Ending up in front of yet another door, they looked at each other before shrugging simultaneously. They were both curious what was behind it and decided to go in. Harry carefully pushed open the door only to find an empty and abandoned classroom.