A Changed Lestrange (1-2) (under editing)

16: Don't Mess With Me

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind the armchair.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing." said Harry, hurriedly putting the Invisibility Cloak behind his back.

"You're going out again." he said.

"No, we aren't." said Hermione. "Why don't you, erm, go back to bed, Neville?" 

"You can't go out!" said Neville. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble!" 

"Neville..."

"What?"

"Shut up."

"I won't let you do it! I'll - I'll fight you!"

"Oh, Neville? You don't want to fight Ashton." Ron thought back to the time Ashton had slammed him against the wall in anger and shuddered.

"I don't care!"

"Get away from that hole and stop being a git!"

"Don't you call me a git! You lot told me to stand up to people!"

"Neville, I'm warning you. You get out of the way before I do something that'll haunt you for days." Ashton was extremely short-tempered. While people always criticised him for this, he didn't care in the slightest.

"Go on, then! Hit me! I'm ready!"

"Oh, ho, no you're not." Ashton got his fists ready and swung it straight into Neville's face, blasting him backwards and knocking him out cold. "That'll teach him to stop being meddlesome."

"Haven't we been meddlesome for the last--"

"Making a point, Hermione!" snapped Ashton. Hermione half-nodded. 

"Just for good measure. I'm really sorry, Neville." she said to the unconscious boy. "Petrificus Totalus." He was now frozen up. Harry, Ron and Hermione all walked past Neville, apologising quickly as his eyes began moving. Ashton, however, wasn't apologetic in the slightest.

"I mean it, Neville. I don't want to be your enemy, but NEVER, EVER, EVER cross me. You'll regret it." Ashton thought he'd be really satisfied for knocking Neville out, but it turned out to be  nothing like a good omen. 

Every small noise that came from the corridor gave Ashton the impression they were being watched.

"Who's there?" said Peeves suddenly. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" He rose up in the air and squinted at the four Gryffindor first-years. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around... oooooooh... unseen!" Harry had a sudden idea.

"Peeves, the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible." Peeves alarmingly almost fell out of the air.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr Baron, er, sir." said Peeves rushedly. "Forgive ol' Peevsie for his little joke, sir." Harry croaked in the Bloody Baron's voice that he has business and Peeves needs to leave and not return. Peeves fled quicker than a criminal about to be caught by the cops. 

"Brilliant, Harry!" said Ron. A couple of seconds later they had gone to the third-floor corridor and saw the door was already ajar.

"Snape's already gotten past Fluffy!" said Ashton. "Look, if you three want to go back now, I don't blame you. Harry, you can keep your Cloak - I won't need it now." 

"Don't be stupid," said Ron.

"I'm not being stupid, Ron." snapped Ashton.

"We're coming," said Harry and Hermione at the same time.