Through All the Pain // N. Longbottom

First Year // Chapter 12

Everyone had gone to bed, making it our time to sneak off to the trapdoor. Hermione and I met Harry and Ron on the stairs and tip-toed down the stairs in case any of the older kids were still up. Once we got down I noticed Trevor sitting on the arm of a chair. 

"Trevor, you shouldn't be here," I said walking over. "Neville-"

"Is right here!" He got up from the chair. I looked over at Ron and Harry and gave them a look, as they shared a dorm with him and should've noticed he was gone. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?" he asked us. 

"Nevy, listen-" I said reaching out for his shoulder. He jerked away and stepped right out in front of us. 

"No! I won't let you. You'll get us Gryffindor's into trouble again. I-I'll f-fight you." He stuttered out while holding up his fists. I smiled at my best friend as I saw he was finally stepping up into his brave side. However, Hermione pulled out her wand. 

"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this ... Petrificus Totalus!" She spoke while waving her wand. I quickly rushed behind Neville as he started falling to the ground. I wrapped my arms behind him and eased him down to the ground. Ron snickered and I shot up and glared at him.

"Shut it! He didn't deserve to get a concussion from us, now did he?" Ron shut up and mouthed a sorry to me. I nodded and we started leaving. I felt bad and before we left rushed back in and muttered the countercurse into his ear. As he unfroze I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Sorry, Nevy. This will all make sense tomorrow." I hugged him and sprinted to join my brother, Hermione, and Harry as we began the wildest night of our first year. 

We walked down the corridors to where the three of them said Fluffy was, I had yet to actually see Fluffy and was kind of excited. I loved all magical creatures and was actually wanting to follow Charlie's footsteps and work with Dragons. However, Mum threw a fit when I mentioned the idea so I figured my chances were slim.

"Alohomora!" Hermione whispered as we got to the door. Once we were inside we found ourselves face to face with a sleeping Fluffy. I looked over in the right corner of the room and saw a harp playing by itself. 

"We need to move its paw!" Harry whispered out to us. We nodded and helped Harry move the paw off of the trapdoor. Once Fluffy's paw was no longer on the door, Hermione and Ron pulled it open and we all looked down. As we did, I noticed the harp was no longer playing. 

"I'll go first. Don't follow me until I give you a sign. If anything happens, get yourselves out of here." Harry says to us. I try and move to the harp, but they ignore me until Harry said something. 

"Does it seem a bit ... quiet to you?" I sighed and rolled my eyes. 

"The harp! It stopped playing, a few moments ago!" We all went wide eyes as something dripped down onto Ron's shoulder.

"Yuck! What's this ruddy stuff?" I noticed it was doggie drool and the smell of dog breath was increasing. We cautiously looked up and saw Fluffy towering over us. We all freaked out and jumped down through the door. We fell for a few moments before landing hard on some roots. 

"Lori? Lori? You okay?" Ron spoke wildly. I sighed at his reaction and spoke up. 

"I'm fine, Ronald. You?"

"Yeah. Harry? Hermione?"

"Fine." They both said at the same time. As they did, the roots started to tighten around us and started to crush us. I made eye contact with Hermione who was kind of freaking out a little bit, and I spoke. 

"Stop moving! All three of you! This is Devil's Snare. You have to relax."

"Uh, Lori, it's a bit difficult to relax given the circumstance!" Harry spoke trying to pry the Snare away from his legs. I sighed.