Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

16

Hermione felt her heart pounding in her chest. This was it. This was the night she was going to be expelled and it was all because she had the nerve to want to look out for these two dummies! She was ready for one of the Professors or the Caretaker to come rounding the corner. However, it wasn't them. It was Neville. 

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get into the common room!" He cheered, smiling like a fool. Hermione hushed him. 

"Keep your voice down. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now. The Fat Lady is gone off somewhere." Hermione explained to him. 

"How's your arm?" Harry asked. 

"Fine. Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute." Neville stated to them. 

"Good-- well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later--" Harry started when Nevill scrambled to his feet. 

"Don't leave me! I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already." Neville whimpered. Poor Neville, Hermione thought as she knew how easily Neville could be frightened by things. 

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you." Ron threatened them. Hermione snickered, thinking how it may take Ron years to figure it out given how he didn't really pay attention in class at all. They hurried along the corridors till they were in the Trophy Room. However, no one was there. Hermione darted her eyes around at the trophies, cups, shields, plates and statues while they waited for Malfoy and Crabbe to show up. She was sure Malfoy might have chickened out or something until she heard someone walking towards them. But it wasn't Malfoy. 

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Quickly as they could, they hurried away to escape from Filch. On their way through a corridor full of suits of armor, Neville accidentally freaked himself out and ran into one. As soon as the air was filled with the clanging and crashing of metal, loud enough to wake the entire castle, they all broke into a run. They ran as far as they could until they found themselves in the Charms classroom. 

"I think we've lost him." Harry panted as they all were leaning against desks, allowing themselves to breathe. 

"I told you! I told you!" Hermione gasped, furious about all of this, "Malfoy tricked you, you realize that don't you? He was never going to meet you. Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room! Malfoy tipped him off." 

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower." Ron grumbled to them all. Harry went to take a look to see if the coast is clear before they left the room. They hadn't gotten far when they found Peeves shooting from a classroom and caught sight of them and let out a squeal of delight. 

"Shut up, Peeves! Please! You'll get us thrown out." Harry pleaded with him. 

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut! Naughty, naughty, you'll get..." he started until his eyes landed right on Hermione. She nervously chuckled before waving at him. Peeves bursted out screaming at the top of his lungs before flying away like a speeding bullet. 

"Bloody hell! He really is scared of you." Ron snickered. Hermione shot him a glare before they rushed down at the end of the corridor with a door that was locked. 

"This is it!" Neville whimpered as the sound of footsteps hurried towards where they were, "We're done for! This is the end!" 

"Oh, move over!" Hermione snarled, making her way to the front of the door, "Alohomora!" 

The lock clicked and the door swung opened. They piled through it and shut it quickly before they listened in on Filch's footsteps. For a moment Hermione thought they got away with it until she felt something staring at them. Slowly turning, Hermione gasped at what her eyes saw. They were in the forbidden corridor on the third floor and now she knew why. She was looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog that filled in most of the space between the ceiling and floor and had three heads! All six of its eyes were staring straight at them, clearly shocked at their suddenly entrance, but soon were getting over it. It began growling at the four of them. She could hear Harry groping for the doorknob. Between Filch and death, she'd take Filch. 

As Harry, Ron and Neville hurried out of the room, the dogs stopped growling when it was just Hermione. They began panting as they were grinning from ear to ear, its tail wagging. Hermione shrieked as she felt one licked its giant tongue against her. It was strong enough to pick her off the ground. Hermione was soon covered in drool. She wiped some of its spit from her face as she groaned and hurried out of the room, listening as it started to whimper at her departure. 

She was utterly surprise not only that something like that dog was in the castle, but the way it seemed to calm down when it was only Hermione in that room. Once she took a step out of the room, she caught sight of all three of the boys staring at her. 

"What the bloody hell happened to you?" Ron asked, looking at her now drooled covered self. 

"I think it likes me." She mumbled, "Now can we go, I need a shower." 

They hurried off back to their tower as Ron started complaining. 

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked them, keeping far from Hermione, who was leaving a trail of drool behind her. 

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped, "Didn't you see what it was standing on?" 

"The floor?" Harry suggested to her, "Easy for you to say, given it likes for you some reason, so it allowed you to look at the floor. But not me. I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads." 

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's guarding something down there." Hermione stated to them, "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed-- or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I need to get clean up before going to bed." 

She turned on her heels and headed to the showers, squirming as she felt drops of drool slipping down her clothes.