The Potter Twins and the Philosopher's Stone

19. Down the Trap Door *

"Long live the reckless and the brave, I don't think I wanna be saved, my song has not been sung" ~ The Reckless and the Brave, All Time Low

That night in the cover of darkness the four of us prepare to leave for the trap door.

We creep down from our dormitories to find Neville's toad waiting for us.

"Trevor."

"Trevor! Go! You should be here!" Ron hisses.

"Neither should you," Neville says as he appears from behind an armchair. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?"

"No, Neville, please listen. We were--" I begin.

"No, I won't let you!" He cuts me off, "you'll get Gryffindor in trouble again. I'll fight you!" He says, raising his fists.

"Aw, Neville." I can't help myself from giving him a sorry stare.

"Neville, I'm really sorry about this," Hermione says. "Pertrificus Totalus."

She waves her wand and Neville is frozen still. He falls onto his back, unable to keep himself up.

"You're a little scary sometimes you know that?" Ron says. "brilliant, but scary."

"Let's go."

"I'm sorry, Neville," I whisper as we pass.

"It's for your own good, you know.".

With that, we leave the common room and we all huddle under the Invisibility Cloak, a precaution in case we run into any teachers or prefects.

We reach the third-floor corridor and Hermione opens the door with her unlocking spell.

We enter Fluffy's chamber to hear the soft, calming sound of a harp and loud, irritable snoring.

"Wait a minute," I say. "He's snoring." I finish as we remove the cloak.

"Snape's already been here," Harry whispers, "he's out a spell on that harp."

We slowly walk closer to fluffy, to see that his paw is resting on the trap door.

"We have to move its paw," I say.

"What?" Ron winces.

"Come on!" Harry tells him.

We all take ahold of the paw and try to move it away from the trap door.

Surprisingly, we manage it without any fuss or problems.

We lift the trap door up and look down.

"I'll go in first. Don't follow until I give you a sign." Harry says.

"I'll follow after you," I tell him and he nods. "If something bad happens, get yourselves out of here."

"Does it seem a bit quiet to you?" Harry then says, looking around thoughtfully.

"The harp," I say, a horrible thought dawning on me. "It's stopped playing."

A huge drop of slobber suddenly drops into Ron's shoulder, proving me suspicions right.

"Ugh!"

We look up to see Fluffy standing over us, completely awake and alert to our presence.

Well, there goes that plan.

"Jump!" I scream, and one by one we all jump into the trap door.

We land on a bouncy sort of vine that breaks our fall.