Courage

-6-

Book: Courage
Chapter 6
Word Count: 3810

"Three-headed dog? You're joking," said Layla at breakfast the next morning, not believing a word that Harry and Ron were telling her.

"It's true," said Ron, stuffing a sausage in his mouth. "Malfoy tipped Filch off that we were out past curfew and we had to run to escape Filch! I still can't believe Hermione bloody Granger followed us. And poor Neville, he was trapped out of the common room."

"Wait, so you're telling me that you wondered to the third floor corridor to escape Filch, knowing you're not allowed to be there, and found a three-headed dog there that tried to maul you to death, and the dog was standing on some sort of trapdoor, but you managed to get out and go back to the common room?" asked Layla. Harry and Ron both nodded. "No wonder Dumbledore didn't want us going there. You really can die from being there..."

"Well, Malfoy never planned on meeting us," sighed Harry, piling some scrambled egg onto his plate.

"The bloody chicken," said Ron quietly.

"Sounds like it was an adventure last night though," Layla chuckled. "I kind of wish I had gone now."

"We'll probably go on more adventures! You can come next time," Ron grinned.

"Guys?" spoke Harry. "You know that vault that was broken into at Gringott's? Hagrid and I went to that vault before school started. Hagrid collected some small package from that vault, said it was official Hogwarts business."

"Really?" Layla frowned. "What could it be? Do you think that's what the three-headed dog you saw is guarding?"

"Must be," shrugged Harry.

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.

"Or both," said Harry.

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, and she would only ever speak to Layla when she wasn't with the two boys, but Hermione was such a bossy know-it-all that Harry and Ron saw this as an added bonus. All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, much to Layla's enjoyment, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. The owls soared down and dropped it right in front of Harry. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel. As Layla received some white chocolate exploding bon bons and her usual letter from her dad, she opened one of the bon bons and watched in awe as Harry ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.
　　Professor McGonagall

Harry had difficulty hiding his glee as he handed the note to Ron to read.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."

"Ooh, let me see," said Layla as she put down her letter from Remus and Ron handed her the letter from McGonagall. Layla read it and smiled. "Awesome! Do you think you can let me ride it once or twice? Pretty please?"