enchanted • draco malfoy

Year 1: The Forbidden Corridor

 Felicity's POV

"You're joking," Ron said in awe, "Seeker? Wow, Harry. You must be the youngest house player in-" "A century," Harry interrupted, smiling, "Yeah, I know."

I smiled. "Good job, Harry," I said, "Although you also could've died, or killed someone, or gotten expelled, but still. Good job."

He looked at the ground, embarrassed, just as the Weasley twins came up to us, grinning. "Congrats, Harry! We play on the Quidditch team, too!" they said enthusiastically.

"We're Beaters, and our-" "-job is to make sure you don't get bloodied up to bad! It's a rough sport, Quidditch," Fred said, interrupting George. "But don't worry. No one's died in years! Though people do disappear occasionally, they always turn up sooner or later," George said cheerfully. They walked away, talking about some kind of complicated flight formation for Quidditch.

I chuckled at Harry's pale face. "You'll do fine, Harry! You're a natural," I said reassuringly. "Of course he will," Hermione said, appearing out of nowhere, "It's in your blood." 

My brow furrowed, and Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks. Hermione merely said, "Follow me."

She led us down to the trophy room and walked to the glass case that held the past Quidditch House Cups. She pointed to a badge on one in the middle. I squinted and saw the words, 'James Potter' and 'Seeker'. "Harry! You never told us your dad was a Seeker, too!" Ron exclaimed. Harry shook his head. "I didn't know," he replied.

~*~

"It's creepy," I heard Ron mutter to Harry, talking about Hermione, "She knows more about you than you do!" Harry whispered back, "Who doesn't?"

Suddenly the staircase lurched forward, causing me to crash into Ron. "What's happening?" Harry asked, alarmed. "The staircases change, remember?" Hermione replied loudly over the sound of the grating noise. The stairs finally stopped and we all let out a sigh of relief. "Let's go this way," Harry decided. "Before the staircase moves again," I added under my breath.

We walked to the door that the staircase led to and Harry hesitantly pushed it open. It opened into a long corridor, lined with big bronze braziers every few meters, that led to a dingy wooden door heavily enforced with steel bands and a large lock on the other side. I heard Ron gulp behind me.

"Does anyone feel like we're not supposed to be here?" he asked nervously. I shivered and nodded. "It's because we're not supposed to be here. This is the third floor," I whispered, saying the last part quieter. "It's forbidden," Hermione agreed.

We all took a step forward, but jumped back in fright when the brazier next to Harry suddenly caught fire. "Let's go," Harry said quickly. We turned around to see the caretaker Argus Filch's stupid cat sitting in the entrance, glaring at us.

"Ummm, guys..." I started uneasily, just as Ron said, "Run!" We sprinted down the narrow corridor, making another brazier light itself with each step we took. We stopped in front the door, which looked much more sturdy now that it was right in front of me. Ron and Harry were trying in vain to open it.

"Oh, move!" I snapped impatiently, "Alohomora!"

The rusty lock unlocked and we rushed through, just as Filch came stumbling into the room. We breathed a collective sigh of relief, slouching against the door. "Alohomora?" Ron asked me doubtfully. "Standard Book of Spells, Chapter 7," Hermione murmured absentmindedly. "Why didn't we just run around the freaking cat?" I whisper-yelled.

There was a moment of silence before we all turned to Harry, who was quiet throughout the conversation. His wide, scared eyes were trained on something behind us. Ron, Hermione, and I turned slowly to see a humongous, sleeping, three-headed dog. My eyes caught on some wood panel by the creature's ridiculously large paw as I tried to calm my breathing.

We backed up slowly, carefully, but the dog was stirring, one of its head sniffing the air before they all shook themselves awake. I gulped in fear as the three-headed beast began growling at us and standing up.

"Good puppy," I whispered. The dog roared, or maybe it was just a bark, and the sound was amplified by it's three freaking heads.

We all screamed varying things at the same time; "Bloody hell!", "Run!", and "Ahhh!!!" Ron flung open the door and we ran out, pressing ourselves against it to keep the thing inside. As soon as it closed, I slammed the lock back down and backed away from the door quickly.

We exchanged a look before running back across the corridor to those damn stairs that got us into this mess in the first place.

On our way back to the Common Room, Ron wouldn't stop blabbering about how 'unsafe' and 'irresponsible' and 'dangerous' having a three-headed dog in the castle was. Not that it isn't all those things, but-

"Ron, you're beginning to sound like Percy," Harry said, annoyed. "I was about to say the same thing," I muttered, "I'm starting to hate you more than the dog."

Hermione groaned. "You guys don't use your eyes, do you?" she asked. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

Ron looked at her incredulously. "I was a bit occupied with it's heads, Hermione! If you didn't notice, there were three of them!"

Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation. "It was standing on a trapdoor. Which means it wasn't there by accident," she said as we finally reached the girls' dorm, "It's guarding something."

"Guarding something?" Ron and Harry asked in sync. "She's right," I agreed, thinking back onto what the dog had been standing over.

"Now, if you two don't mind, Felicity and I are going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse," Hermione paused for a dramatic effect, "expelled." She finished with a glare directed at Ron and Harry.

I stifled my laughter as she marched into the girl' dormitory. I winked at Harry and Ron. "Goodnight, guys," I said quietly, before closing the door.

I stumbled to bed before changing out of my robes and falling into a dreamless sleep.