Soulmates (a Draco Malfoy fanfiction)

The First Trap

The day seemed to pass by way too slowly. I ended up having to make more excuses at the end of the day to get out of going to dinner so I could go to my room and take a nap. I knew I was going to be up most of the night, so I had to be well rested.

I found myself sneaking out of my room once again, except this time I wasn't going to collect my friends along the way. I was going alone, and that slightly worried me.

I made my way to the door Harry told me about. When I got there, I was alone again. I thought I was early, until I heard Hermione Granger exclaim, "You came!"

Suddenly, the Golden Trio appeared out of nowhere; the invisibility cloak, I realized. That thing was so cool! Harry was so lucky to have it!

Hermione's face was bright with excitement, Harry was glad to see me, and, as usual, Ron looked angry and grumpy. I decided to ignore him. I was here, I was going to help save his home, as well as my own, and if he didn't like it then he could be grumpy to himself. It wouldn't affect me anymore.

"I figured you may need some more backup," I shrugged in response to Hermione's excitement. "I'm warning you, though, I'm still not the best at my spells."

"Hopefully we won't have to use many," Hermione said, before pulling her wand from her robes. She pointed it to the gigantic lock on the big wooden door and murmured, "Alohomora."

The lock unlocked itself, and it slowly opened by itself. We stepped inside, and the first thing I noticed was the sound of loud, heavy snoring. Once inside the semi-dark room, I saw what was making the noise; a giant three headed dog was sound asleep in front of us.

Involuntarily, I jumped and let out a high yelp. Harry quickly covered my mouth with his hand, but the dog barley moved.

"Shh!" Harry snapped. "That's Fluffy!"

I smacked Harry's hand off my mouth and whisper-yelled, "There's nothing bloody fluffy about him!"

"Wait a minute," Harry said, ignoring me. "He's...snoring?"

I resisted the urge to say "you think?".

It was then, in the brief silence, that I was aware of some soft, soothing music playing. Sitting close to the dog was a harp, and it was playing by itself.

"Snape's already been here," Harry said. "He's put a spell on the harp."

"It's got horrible breath!" Ron muttered.

Chanel rolled her eyes and stated, "That's the least of our worries. Look, he's still got a huge paw on the door!"

I pointed to the trap door I figured we were supposed to go into. Fluffy had one of his giant paws laid right in the middle of the door, not doubt holding it down. There was no way we were going to open the door with the dog's paw covering it. Just looking at it, I could feel how heavy it was.

"We'll have to move it," Harry stated, shrugging.

"What?!" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Come on," Harry said, now ignoring Ron.

The four of us got in place; Ron and Hermione on one side of the paw, myself on the other, with Harry at the tip. Harry counted us down and we all lifted. Even with the four of us working together, the paw still seemed to way a tonne!

We moved it quickly, yet as carefully as we could. Once again, the dog didn't even stir. The music had put him into a deep sleep. Not complaining about that, though. I wouldn't want to see this thing awake.

Hermione pulled the trap door open. The bottom was covered in darkness. There was no way to tell how far down it was, or what would be there to cushion our fall.

"I'll go first," Harry decided. "Don't follow until I give you a sign. If something bad happens, get yourselves out." There was a pause. The room was unusually silent. "Does it seem a bit quiet to you?"

"That harp," Hermione said, looking over her shoulder. "It's stopped playing."

Sure enough, it had! The harp was still and the room was far to silent for my liking. However it was soon disturbed by Ron's exclamation of disgust. We all turned to see what his problem was, only to see that his shoulder was covered in a big drop of slobber.

Slowly, we all looked up to see the three giant heads of Fluffy staring at us, growling with anger.

I was the first to make the decision. "Jump!"

I shoved myself off the side of the trap door and fell in. I could hear Harry falling behind me.

We fell for a bit before landing on top of some black, slimy, cold vines. Harry landed next, followed by Ron next to him and Hermione next to me.

"Gross," I mumbled.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," Ron shrugged. I guess he was right.

As I sat there, wondering how we were going to get down off of these things, I felt something move beneath me. I gasped as I felt something wrap around my stomach and grab me hard. It was the vine! I was about to scream out when another wrapped around my mouth.

Let me tell you, it did not taste good.

One by one, vines attacked the three of us. Everyone was struggling against them, but there was no use. They were fighting back. The more I grabbed at the one around my mouth, the tighter it seemed to get. Another vine wrapped itself around my arms, constricting them to my sides.

Suddenly, Hermione called, "Stop moving! This is the Devil's Snare. You have to relax. If you don't, it'll only kill you faster."

Nice to know! I thought.

"Kill us faster?" Ron asked, sarcastically. "Oh, now I can relax!"

Hermione, who had been the first to stop struggling, all of a sudden disappeared. I felt my heart race as I tried to call out to her, only for it to come out muffled and intelligible.

I stopped struggling, though. I decided to take her advice. Hermione was the smartest of the four of us, she had to know what she was talking about. So, I just stopped. And that made me the next to fall through the vines. The tight restrictions lifted as I hit the floor next to Hermione.

I sighed, happy to be free.

"Just relax!" Hermione called to the two still struggling boys.

"Hermione, where are you?!" called Harry.

"Just do as she says!" I called next. "They won't hurt you if you relax!"

"Trust us!" Hermoine added.

There is a still moment before Harry comes through the vines next. Once he's to his feet, I raced over and hugged him tightly.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said with a nod.

Above us, we could still hear Ron screaming and thrashing in terror. The poor fool just wouldn't listen! He was going to be crushed to death if he didn't just relax!

Frustrated, I sighed and called, "Ron, listen to me! I may not like you, and you definitely don't like me, but you need to take my advice here. Harry, Hermione, and I are all safe on the ground! You must relax, stop struggling, and stop screaming! You'll slip through the vines in no time!"

Once again, he wasn't listening.

"Oh, bloody hell!" I grabbed my wand from my robes and pointed it at the vines. "Lumus Solem!"

A bright light shot from the end of my wand at the vines. They begin to snap as if they were nothing but some ropes, and finally, Ron slipped through. He landed at my feet with a hard thud, and stared at me with surprise. At least he wasn't crushed.

"You...you..." he stuttered.

"Saved you?" I finished, placing my wand back in my robes. "Yes, I did. Don't mention it, okay? Couldn't let my brother's best friend die."

"How did you know to do that?" Hermione asked.

I shrugged and replied. "Herbology is one of my favorite classes. Let's move on, shall we?"