Eccentric // Fred Weasley [1]

Why did it have to be a troll?

The door was open. Well not open, but unlocked. This was the first sign something was wrong. The second sign was the soft harp music playing inside the room that was accompanied by soft rumbles of what I assumed to be Fluffy's snoring. We slipped inside, quickly shutting the door behind us and took off the cloak. When we saw that Fluffy was indeed asleep as I thought, Harry said quietly, "It looks like Snape has already made it through." All of us paused for a moment as we realized the amount of unknown danger we were about to put ourselves through. The feeling in my gut threatened to overwhelm me, so I took a deep breath and when that didn't work I promptly decided to ignore it.

"Well," I whispered. "Let's go." Ron and Hermione nodded to me.

Harry stopped us for a moment, "If you guys want to turn back now you can. I can do this on my own."

I scoffed, "Fat chance." At the same time Ron said, "Don't be stupid," and Hermione said, "We're coming."

Harry just sighed then gestured to the trapdoor near Fluffy, "Who wants to open it then?"

I stepped forward first and crept over to it. Looking down I saw that the heavy lock wasn't even on it and the latch was flipped open. Bending down I opened the door, cringing at the creaking of the hinges. I peeked into the opening and saw nothing but darkness.

"I can't see anything," I squinted, "and there doesn't seem to be a way down."

Harry came over and bent down next to me. After a second he said, "I'll go first."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yes, I'll make sure it's safe.

I hesitated glancing at Ron and Hermione who both looked unsure. "Okay."

Harry hung his legs over the side then dropped down. I heard him land with a slight thump. There was a beat of silence then he called up to us, "It's okay, it's not that far."

I glanced up and pointed to Ron and Hermione then me, signaling that I would go last. They both understood and moved to go down the trapdoor. The sound of movement from behind me stopped us all in our tracks. I realized then that the harp had stopped playing and that a giant, three-headed dog was awake and angry at us for being in his room. A loud bark echoed through the room and, without thinking, I grabbed Ron and Hermione by the wrists, pushed them through the trapdoor and jumped after them. The door closed shut above me and I landed, none to gracefully, on something soft.

From somewhere behind me Ron said, "Luck this plant thing's here."

I agreed with him in my head, but Hermione screeched, "Lucky? Look at you three!"

I looked down and saw that my ankles and wrists, which I had been leaning back on, were covered in vines. Behind me I saw that Ron and Harry were in the same predicament. Hermione had managed to get away and was staring at us in fright. We all struggled in vain as the vines wrapped tighter around us.

"Stop it! Stop, you're making it worse! This is devil's snare."

I immediately stopped when she said that because I remembered what they did, kill you the more you move.

"Oh that's just grand Hermione. I'm glad we know what it's called," Ron yelled, his sarcasm evident.

"Shut up Ron, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!"" Hermione cried.

"Sunlight," I yelled out, as it wrapped around my stomach. "Sunlight and fire!"

Hermione looked around in distress. "Yes, but there's no wood!"

I looked at her in disbelief, Ron yelled again, "WOOD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh right." She pulled out her wand, whispered a spell and then shot out a stream of blue-bell flames from her wand, like the ones she had gotten so adept at putting in jars. The vines shrank from the heat and we were able to scramble out of them. We ran from them, not wanting to get grabbed again, towards a narrow passageway sloping downward.