I May have helped an Evil Wizard. (rewrite)

Harriet and Pansy almost get eaten.

A Long time later, Harriet woke up from her sleep and looked around. How did she end up in the trophy room. A thought struck her. Was she sleep walking? Someone grabbed her and pulled her behind a statue.

"What in the Name of Merlin are you doing?"

It was Pansy.

"Sleepwalking. I think. I don't know! I was in the dormitory and then I woke up here!" Harriet said, confused by the situation.

Pansy looked worried.

"Ok, Let's get back to the dormitory and talk about this there." she said starting to pull Harriet towards the door.

They heard the door Creek and hid behind a large statue. It was Filch.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

"This way!" Pansy mouthed to Harriet and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Harriet suddenly tripped, grabbed Pansy for balance and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.

The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

"RUN!" Pansy yelled, and they sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following - they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, without any idea where they were or where they were going . They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway. The girls hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost him," Harriet panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping her forehead. Pansy was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.

"Let's go." Pansy said grabbing her wrist and pulling her along.

It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.

It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves! You'll get us in trouble!" Pansy ordered.

Peeves cackled. Harriet had the urge to punch a ghost.

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty." Peeves grinned.

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves." Pansy said, pleading.

"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 or we'll call the bloody Baron!" snapped Harriet. She didn't appreciate threats. Not when she was trying to run away from something.

Peeves went a lighter shade than usual and zoomed off.

"This is it!" Pansy moaned, as she pushed helplessly at a door they had run into, "We're done for! This is the end!" They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward the direction from where Peeves had zoomed out of screaming 'students out of bed'.

Harriet thought for a moment scanning the spells she knew. Then she grabbed her wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and the door swung open - they slipped through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please'." Peeves said. They could hear the nasty grin.

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?" Filch snapped.

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right -please." The caretaker relented.

"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harriet whispered, relieved. "I think we'll be okay."

"I'm not too sure about that." Pansy said staring at something.

Harriet turned around - and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, she was sure she'd walked into a nightmare - this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

They weren't in a room, as she had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that 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, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

Harriet scanned the room quickly. Maybe it was tied up?

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harriet knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise. It was like Uncle Vernons sister's dog.

It was also getting over the surprise quickly. There was no mistaking what those growls meant.

Harriet groped for the doorknob. Between death and detention, detention was better.

The door was open and they were out. Pansy slammed it shut.

They almost flew back down the corridor.

 Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they didn't care. All they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the entrance to the common room.

"Silver snake," panted Harriet, and the wall opened. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs. 

It was a while before any of them said anything. Pansy, indeed, looked as if she'd never speak again. She had her arms wrapped around her and was staring at nothing.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Harriet asked. Then, to lighten the mood, she said, "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Pansy just shook her head.

Harriet decided it was best to just keep talking. "It was standing on a trapdoor, guarding something." she said, "It looks as though we have found out where the thing the burgular at gringotts wanted is. Vault 713 was emptied by Hagrid when he took me to buy my stuff and in the newspaper it said that the vault had been emptied the very same day it was broken into. I wonder why they're keeping whatever it is here."

She glanced at Pansy. She was still pale.

"Okay," Harriet said, "Different subject. Food, maybe? Do you want me to talk about food until you calm down?"

No response. Pansy looked a bit less white though.

"Food it is." Harriet decided.