Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 4 - Moving Staircases

"No way! It's like it was meant to be!" I clapped my hands in excitement as Hermione, Harry, Ron and I stood in front of the Quidditch trophy case. Although a little dusty, the name tag read clearly, "James Potter - Seeker."

Harry scratched his head, but still unable to hide his own joy either. He had expected to be punished for the recklessness of his actions in Madame Hooch's class, but instead he had been awarded the role of youngest seeker!

The screech of owls interrupted us as we all turned out heads to see what was happening.

"It's owl mail time!" I exclaimed as we all started booking it to the Great Hall. I had written to my parents just yesterday about everything that had happened so far but I trusted mother to have written back as soon as possible.

When we reached the Gryffindor table, my own snowy owl, Starlet, swoop down and perched gently on my outstretched arm. Compared to Harry's Hedwig, Starlet was quite tiny, but she also had quite the energy and stamina.

I untied the letter from her leg and sent her on her way back to the nursery. I unrolled the letter and pressed it down to the table to prevent it from rolling back up again.

Cress,

Don't mind Professor Snape and the Slytherins, it happened all the time back during our school days and we didn't expect to be any different for you now! Snape has always been anything but pleasant, even when we were students. We trust that you'll earn full marks in his class, regardless. 

They'll never win when Gryffindor has our little princess. At least you're doing a good job staying out of detention...for now. We were informed at work by Lucius that he was hugely displeased that you insulted Draco during the flying class but he probably deserved it, right? 

As you may have heard, there was a breaking at Gringotts but not to worry, we've been investigating and the good news is that nothing was stolen and no one was hurt. Anyways, study hard and don't forget to have fun!

Much love,
The best parents in the world

I chuckled to myself as my eyes skimmed through the letter again. The Gringotts situation was weird and suspicious, but I hadn't mentioned to my parents what Harry had told us the other night: the vault that was broken into was the same vault Hagrid and him had visited. Luckily, nothing was stolen. Whatever it must be though, has got to worth it for someone to break into one of the safest places in the Wizarding world. And whatever it is, right now it was probably somewhere in Hogwarts. Could anyone be stupid enough to sneak into Hogwarts? Especially with all the Professors and Dumbledore.

After everyone gathered their mail and others stayed behind to write back immediately, the four of us strolled back to our common room.

"She knows more about you than you do!" Ron exclaimed, recounting our earlier trip to the trophy case.

"Who doesn't?" Harry sighed.

"As I was saying-" Hermione cut off as the stairs beneath us started rumbling. I couldn't help but let out a terrified scream as the stairs whipped to the right.

"What's happening?" Ron gripped the railing tightly, his eyes darting to and fro with uncertainty.

"In case you couldn't tell, they're moving. Don't you ever listen?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Not to Percy, I don't. I've gotten used to tuning him out," Ron shrugged, less terrified now that the staircase had latched onto another landing. One we weren't so familiar with.

"Let's just get off before it decides to move again," We followed Harry onto the landing and into the only room it led to.

I laughed nervously as we slowly made our way through the dusty place. "Does anyone feel like we shouldn't be here?"

"We're not supposed to! It's the third floor, it's forbidden!" Hermione reminded us in a hushed yet sharp tone.

"Great, thanks for telling us now," Ron made a face as he ducked under a spider web.  

Just when we were about to turn around, we ran into Filch's cat. Hermione suggested we run for it and so we did, until there wasn't anywhere to run to anymore. The only thing in front of us was a securely locked door, which Hermione unlocked with ease. I honestly started expecting nothing less from her at this point, she seemed to know just about anything and everything.

Squinting my eyes, I didn't spot anything down the hall but a patch of pitch black. "Wonder why the door was locked. Doesn't seem like there's anything up here anyways."

"Umm, Cress?" Harry's voice echoed from down the short hallway.

"Yea?"

"You might want to take that back right now."

There, standing right in front of us was gigantic dog with not one, but three heads. The worst part? We had interrupted its sleep. When all three of its heads finally registered that there was people standing in front of it, it lunged at us, the only thing holding it back was the chain. Letting out a scream of terror, I turned and bolted back down the way we came with the trio hot on my heels. It took all of us to slam the door shut and lock it in place again. Huffing and out of breath, we cautiously made it back to the staircase which, at last, brought us to the right path.

"Why would they have a creature like that in the school?" Ron was still traumatized.

"First, you don't use your ears and now you don't use your eyes either, do you?" Hermione paused to give Ron a how-can-you-be-this-clueless look. "The dog was standing on a trapdoor, which means it was definitely guarding something!"

It was Harry and Ron's turn to pause now. "Guarding something?" they repeated.

Hermione and I shared a glance. Nope, not tonight. "I think we've had enough for today. I think I'll be heading to bed now," I quickly said before they could wrap their minds around what Hermione said.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm also going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled," With that, Hermione whipped around and walked into the girls dormitory.

"She needs to sort out her priorities," Ron concluded, shaking his head. "Don't know how you're surviving sharing a room with her."

I grinned. "I manage," I said before closing the door behind me as I headed to my room.

What could the dog be guarding though? Then it hit me. The dog was guarding whatever Hagrid had retrieved from Gringotts the other day. I was correct, it was here at Hogwarts with us. But what in the world could it be?