An American at Hogwarts

A Nighttime Expedition

I spent most of my day split between teaching Harry basic defensive magic and trying to convince him not to go. Ron, for his part, seemingly wanted nothing to do with me, which, given the events of the past week or so, I didn't mind all that much. I didn't hate him or anything, but he was certainly getting on my nerves with how stubborn he could be. I spent a bit of time near the end of the night going through the book Dumbledore had given me. It confirmed my suspicions about the importance of my emotions in magic, but didn't really explain much about how to actually utilize that information beyond me needing to really want the spell to work, which frankly I could have figured out for myself. However, it had a wealth of information on defensive spells that I was most appreciative of. I could tell it would take a decent amount of time, maybe even several years, to actually put anything in it to use effectively, but it was a very good start for my personal studies, if perhaps a bit too advanced for where I was at the moment. Around ten at night, the door to the boys dorm creaked open, and out stepped Harry and Ron. Hermione and Marie had joined me a couple minutes earlier.

I cleared my throat to grab their attention. "We aren't just gonna sit here and let you guys go without a talk, you know?"

Ron groaned. "Ugh, you three again. Can't you just mind your own business?"

Hermione glared at him. "You are our friends, that makes it our business."

Marie nodded. "Like Y/N said earlier, this is blatantly a trap. You saw him back on the train, Malfoy isn't exactly the type to take a fight head on."

Harry sighed. "I'm not backing down from this, guys, so just head back to sleep."

Him and Ron moved to leave the common room, while the three of us all followed closely behind, arguing with them the whole way. Once we got out past the Fat Lady, Hermione sighed. "Fine. Go get yourselves expelled."

With that, she turned, but her eyes went wide. I turned to see what she was looking at, and the Fat Lady was gone. She must have went to visit a friend, or something. Harry and Ron started off towards the trophy room, and I followed behind, dragging Hermione and Marie with me.

"We're coming with you now. The Professors like me, I can try to convince them not to just throw you out, I'll say I made you all go or something."

Ron groaned. "Fine, but if any of you three get us caught I'll figure out how to cast that conjunctivitis curse Quirrell was talking about and use it on you."

Before we made it to the trophy room, however, we ran across Neville sleeping in the halls.

Harry tapped him on the shoulder, waking him up. "Oi, what are you doing here?"

Neville shakily got up, speaking softly, seemingly embarrassed. "I forgot the password..."

I sighed. "Well its pig snout, but that won't help you now. The Fat Lady has gone for a walk it looks like. Come with us, it's probably safest."

Soon enough, we made it to the trophy room, only to find it empty.

I scowled at Ron and Harry. "See? I told you he wouldn't show up."

Ron frowned. "Maybe he's just late." He didn't seem particularly confident in that statement.

Before anyone else could say anything, we heard footsteps from the hall behind us.

"Come on now, Mrs. Norris, they're supposed to be in here!"

Filch. I grabbed Ron and Marie, who were closest, and dragged them behind me to the opposite side of the room, the others following closely behind. We ran until we found ourselves in the Charms corridor, where we stopped to take a breath.

"See Harry? It was a damn trap! I told you!"

Harry opened his mouth to reply but was stopped when a familiar shape floated through the wall.

"Oooooh! Ickle firsties out late! Get in trouble, you should! Tell Filch, I should!"

I groaned. "Peeves I swear to..."

"STUDENTS OUT PAST CURFEW DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR! STUDENTS OUT PAST CURFEW!"

I grabbed Marie and ran off, the others following once again. We ran and ran, before we found ourselves at a locked door.

"That's it! We're finished!" Said Harry, seemingly about to cry.

"Oh come on, don't any of you read?" Said Hermione, grabbing Harry's wand and pointing it at the door.

Alohamora!

The lock clicked open, and we stumbled through, closing the door behind us.

We heard Filch rush in and begin to argue with Peeves.

"Where did they go!"

"I shant say nothing if you don't say please!"

Filch groaned. "Please."

"NOTHING! Haha! Get it?"

We heard Peeves rush off, and Filch searched the room quickly before seemingly walking off.

Ron was still catching his breath. "Thank goodness, he must think the door is locked!"

"And with good reason." Said Hermione, stuttering. I turned to look where she was looking and my eyes went wide. Standing on the other side of the room, seemingly on top of something, was a massive three headed dog. We all screamed at once and retreated back through the door, not stopping running until we got back to the Fat Lady's portrait, which she had thankfully returned to.

"Whatever are you six doing?"

"Never mind that! Pig snout, pig snout!" Said Harry, completely out of breath. We stumbled back into the common room, catching our breath.

"What the hell do they think they're doing keeping that in a school!" Said Ron angrily.

Hermione sighed. "Honestly, do you even use your eyes? Didn't you see what it was standing on top of?"

Ron glared at her. "I was too busy looking at it's three bloody heads!"

Me and Marie spoke in unison. "A trapdoor. It's protecting something."

Hermione smiled at us before quickly frowning again as she looked back towards Ron and Harry. "Exactly! Now I'm going to go off to bed before you two come up with another brilliant plan to get us killed. Or worse, expelled!"

With that, she walked off, Marie following closely behind her after saying goodnight to me.

Ron groaned. "Well she's certainly got her priorities straight."

I didn't even bother responding. My mind was too busy thinking. Whatever could that dog be protecting? What was so important that they would risk having that thing in Hogwarts? I thought about it a bit longer before finally deciding to sleep on it. It had been a long day, after all.