The Unknown: A Harry Potter Story

Chapter 11: The Duel

Jason turned around slowly with fear coursing through his veins. He hadn't really paid attention to where they were going when Hermione and Ron dragged him after the running group, but now as Jason turned around he realized something. The door they had gone through didn't lead to a room, it leads to a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. Standing there now, Jason understood why it was forbidden.

In the corridor behind them stood a giant monstrous dog. The first thing Jason noticed about the dog was its size. The dog stood filling the entire corridor and touching the ceiling. The next thing he noticed was arguably more terrifying. The dog had three heads. Three pairs of monstrous eyes; three noses; three mouths filled with large yellowish teeth.

The dog stood, all three pairs of eyes fixed on them, with its three heads each producing a low growl. The dog stood rather still, and Jason realized the only reason it hadn't attacked yet was their sudden appearance had shocked the dog, but judging by the growls its heads were giving off, that shock was wearing off.

Besides him, Jason could see Harry searching for the door handle. Once he found it, the five of them fell backward through the door and on to the cold hard floor. Jumping into action, Jason and Harry got up and slammed the corridor door closed, just as the three-headed dog lunged forward. Once the door was closed, the five of them began to run towards Gryffindor tower. Filch must have moved on just before they exited the forbidden corridor because he was nowhere in sight, but they hardly cared - all they wanted to do was put as much space between them and the three-headed dog as possible. The five of them didn't slow down until they reached the portrait of the fat lady, who looked at them in shock.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at the state of them. Jason and Nevile's clothes were all disheveled, and Nevile had a rip on his pant leg from when they fell. On the other hand, Harry, Ron, and Hermione's bathrobes were falling off their shoulders. All of them were coated in sweat and still had a terrified look on their faces.

"Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout," Harry gave her the password and the portrait swung forward. Once they all clambered through the opening, the group all fell into armchairs, trembling.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked, breaking a long silence that had settled around them. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

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

"The floor?" Harry snapped back. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

Jason took a moment to think back at the scene. "A trapdoor," He realized. "The dog, it was guarding something."

"Exactly," Hermione responded. She then turned to address Harry and Ron. "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."

"No, we don't mind," Ron said once she left. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know about her, but you did drag me along," Jason spoke up. "Why don't you explain to me what was going on, and why you all were out at this time of night? But do it tomorrow. All I can think about right now is my bed."

The next morning at breakfast Harry and Ron told Jason about what they were doing the previous night. Apparently Malfoy had challenged Harry to a duel at midnight, and instead of showing up had told Mr. Filch where to find them.

"So why were you out last night?" Harry asked curiously once Ron had finished filing Jason in.

Jason wasn't sure what to say. Hearing what happened to Harry and Ron, he wasn't sure if he could trust Silas to show up on Thursday. No, even if it's a trap I have to show up, but if it is a trap I don't want to pull Harry and Ron into it.