The Dragon and the Snake | Charlie Weasley ff

A narrow Escape

Three years before Philosopher's Stone

I yawned, shook out my hands and adjusted my stance. I tried the spell I've been working on for the past weeks for what felt the millionth time, but still, no result. Nothing. Not even a slight spark. I groaned out of frustration and lowered my wand. I looked outside and saw nothing but a pitch black sky. It must be late already, I thought and checked my watch. Oh crap, it was already 11 pm. I wasn't even supposed to be outside the common room anymore. If anyone caught me sneaking around the school this late, I would be in big trouble. And I didn't want to be in detention with school not even having started one month ago.

Hastily I packed up the books that lay scattered around the room and put them in my bag. I took a last look around the room to see if I had forgotten something and then carefully opened the door, which opened with a squeak.

"Shh", I hissed, but I knew it was no use. I was talking to a door, after all. 

I peered around the corridor to see whether it was clear and the hurried out of the Room of Requirement into the empty hallway. I kept close to the walls and looked carefully around every corner to see if someone was there. Occasionally I would stop walking to listen. I wasn't sure whether I was hearing footsteps behind me or whether it was just my own echoing from the walls. If they were, I was being way too loud and Filch, the caretaker, or his evil cat, Mrs Norris would catch up to me in no time and then I'd be screwed. My worst fear though was Peeves the Poltergeist turing up. I was praying he had some other business right now. I was lucky. Until I reached the staircase leading from the first floor down towards the Entrance Hall with the Great Hall on the right and the big doors of Hogwarts right in front of it.

I had run into another student, which was good. Better than running into a teacher. I looked at the guy I've run into. He had bright red hair and his face was covered in freckles. There was no doubt. It was one of the Weasley brothers. More precisely, it was Charlie Weasley, the second oldest of the Weasleys. I had only talked to him one before, on the train ride to Hogwarts a few weeks ago when all the new Prefects met in the train. But apart from that, I've never had anything to do with him, even though we were in the same year and even had some classes tighter, I think. Our worlds were just too different and honestly, I couldn't be bothered. I stared at him with confusion. His robes looked pretty battered and his hands were covered with scratches. I wondered what he'd been up to. He looked at me with a mixture of shock and surprise.

"What the hell are you doing here?", I hissed.

"I could ask you the same thing", he replied.

There was a moment of silence in which we just stared at each other.

"I'm not going to tell on you if you don't tell on me", he offered.

I thought about the offer for a moment. How did I know I could trust him? After all, he was in Gryffindor and I was in Slytherin. Our houses hated each other. What if he just pretended he wouldn't say anything and then went to one of the teachers and told them about me.

"Why should I trust you?", I asked suspiciously.

"Because if either one of us tells on the other, the teachers will know we were both out of bed at night"

"Oh, right", I said, "Good point"

Charlie grinned at me and wanted to continue his path, but at the same moment we heard footsteps approaching. No! I've been standing here for too long! I shouldn't have thought about the offer that much. Now we'd definitely get busted. Charlie jumped to the side and hid in the doorframe.

"Romero" a voice sounded through the corridor.

Damn it! 

I spun around to face the teacher. It was Professor McGonagall. Great. Now I was in real deep shit, since she was head of Gryffindor House. I stared at her, not knowing what to do or say. Had she seen Charlie?