Harry Riddle || Harry potter

Chapter 12: Behind the Locked Door

The clock had struck half past eleven by the time that Harry and Draco snuck out of the dungeons. They had made their way quietly down the hall when a soft voice pierced the silence. "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

"You," Draco growled. "Stay out of this, mudblood, and go back to bed!"

Hermione now seemed to be aware of what the word 'mudblood' meant, and she looked as though she wanted to hex him.

"I could have told Filch, you know," she said instead. "He'd have put a stop to this."

"Why you know-it-all little mudb-"

"Quit, Draco," said Harry sharply, even though he himself was more than a little annoyed with her. It wouldn't do to have a fight in the middle of the halls and attract the attention of Mrs. Norris. "Hermione, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be asleep in Ravenclaw Tower? Or studying? I heard the library got a new book, why don't you go read it?"

"I couldn't let you do something like this!" exclaimed Hermione. "You could lose so many points from Slytherin!"

"What do you care?" Draco snapped. "You're not in Slytherin! But you could end up losing points from Ravenclaw if you don't go back to your dorm!"

"Hermione, I'm not even sure how you found out about this, but . . . I suppose if you want to come with us, you can. If you're just here to be a bother, though, please go back to Ravenclaw Tower. Now we've got to go or we're going to be late." With those words, Harry and Draco both went back to tiptoeing down the hall.

Hermione huffed indignantly before taking off after the two boys. The three of them walked in a strained silence until they had almost reached the entrance to the cellar, where they would find the staircase leading to the second floor.

Harry suddenly skidded to a halt.

"Do you hear that?"

Draco and Hermione both stopped breathing for a moment and listened intently. Sure enough, there was a quiet snuffling sound permeating through the corridor.

"Mrs. Norris?" Hermione breathed.

Harry exhaled an exasperated sigh of relief. "No." The black-haired Slytherin walked up a few steps and nudged a previously unseen lump that was sprawled on the floor. "Hey! Wake up! Er . . . Hufflepuff! Up!"

The lump, which turned out to be the pudgy toad boy from the Hogwarts Express, jerked suddenly awake. "Oh, thank goodness you found me!" he exclaimed, blinking blearily up at them.

"I forgot the password . . ." he continued, but trailed off once he noticed exactly who had found him. He let out a small whimper. "Oh, um, I- I . . ."

"Scared of Slytherins?" Draco muttered, annoyed.

The boy nodded mutely. Draco rolled his eyes.

"I f- forgot the password."

"We don't have the password for Hufflepuff," Harry told him. "Sorry. And we've really got to be somewhere. So I hope you remember it-"

"Don't leave me!" The boy was on his feet in a snap. "Please! The Bloody Baron has been past here twice already, and I'm sure that the next time he sees me he'll-"

"Fine," Harry gritted out, clenching his fists. His first real duel, and he couldn't even get there on time because he was surrounded by idiots! "But, let me tell you, Hufflepuff, we're going to a duel."

"A duel?" he repeated, his eyes wide.

"Yes, one of those things where you cast curses at each other. But, if you ever tell anyone about it, I'll do something to you much worse than anything the Bloody Baron ever could."