meant to be (1)

16

Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me with him as we sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see wether Filch was following us or not. We swung around a doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry and I in the lead, without any idea where we were or where we were going. We ripped trough a tapestry and found ourselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and it came out near the charms classroom, which was miles from the throphy room.

"I think we've lost him" Harry panted, still not letting go of my hand.

"Let go of me" I spat and pulled my hand out of his.

"I - told - you" Hermione gasped, clutching her chest. " I - told - you."

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower" said Ron. "quickly as possible"

"Malfoy tricked you" Hermione said "You realise that, don't you? He was never going to meet you. Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off"

I knew Hermione was right, but I didn't want to tell her that.

"Let's go"

It wasn't going to be that simple. We hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of us. It was Peeves. He caught sight of us and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out" I said, but Peeves cackled.

"Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, Naughty, you'll get caughty"

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please" Harry said.

"Should tell Filch, I should." said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good you know."

"Get out of the way" snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves - this was a big mistake.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

And we were running again for our lives, right to the end of the corridor, where we slammed into a door - and it was locked.

"This is it" Ron moaned, as Harry and him pushed helplessly at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!"

We could already hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as we could towards Peeves's shouts.

"Oh, move over" Hermione and I snarled at the same time, thinking the same, but she let me do it.

"Alohomora!" I whispered. The door clicked and swung open. We piled trough it, shut it quickly and pressed our ears against it to listen.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch asked "Quick tell me"

"Say please"

"Don't mess me about, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please" said Peeves in his annoying sing-song voice.

"All right - please"

"NOTHING! Haha! Told you I would've say nothing if you didn't say please! Haha Haha!" and we heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing.

"He thinks this door is locked" Harry whispered. "I think we'll be OK - get off, Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry dressing-gown for the last minute.

"What?"

We all turned around and saw quite clear what.  I was sure, we walked into a nightmare. We weren't in a room as we thought. We were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor in the third floor and now we knew why it was forbidden.

We were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, which filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes, three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction, three drooling mouths, salvia hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at us. The only reason we weren't dead yet was our sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that. There was no mistaken what those thunderous growls meant.

Between dead and Filch, I'd take Filch. We fell backwards as Harry reached for the doorknob and slammed the door shut.

We ran, almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must've hurried off to look somewhere else, but I didn't care - all I wanted was space between me and that monster. We didn't stop running until we reached the Fat Lady.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at us suspiciously.

"Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout." panted Harry and the potrait swung open. We scrambled into the common room. Harry and I collapsed on to a sofa, while Ron, Hermione and Neville where sitting in arm chairs.

It was a while before any of us said anything. Neville looked like he would never speak again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in the school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back.

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

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at  its feet, I was to busy looking at its heads"

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It waa obviously guarding something"  She stood up glaring at us. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron stared after her, his mouth open.

"No, we don't mind." he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

After Hermione and Neville had gone to bed, Harry, Ron and I stayed up in the common room, talking about everything that had happened. We all couldn't go back to sleep.

"You know, Jules, earlier, when we were holding hands-" Harry started, looking at me with his usual smirk.

"Goodbye, Potter." I said while standing up and going to my dormitory.

But I still couldn't sleep, because of all the thoughts in my head. What if Hermione was right? What if the dog really was guarding something? And what was it?