Into the Lion's Den

Chapter 13

Deimos lies in bed staring at the red material at the top of his bed "Half-past eleven, we'd better go." Ron suddenly pipes up. Climbing out their of beds the three friends pull on their dressing gowns, grab their wands and creep down into the Gryffindor common room "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry." a voice pipes up, making the three boys stop and turn to see Hermione in an armchair. "You! Go back to bed!" Ron exclaims. "I almost told your brother, Percy. He's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this." Hermione tells them. "Come on." Harry tells Ron and Deimos, leading them out the common room. "Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells." Hermione rants, following them. "Go away." Ron tells her. "All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so-" Hermione stops as she turns to see the Fat Lady gone, leaving Hermione locked out of the Gryffindor tower "Now what am I going to do?" she asks. "That's your problem. We've got to go, we're going to be late." Ron tells her, leading Harry and Deimos down the hall.

By the time they got halfway down the corridor Hermione had caught up with them "I'm coming with you." she tells them. "You are not." Ron retorts. "D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up." Hermione glares. "You've got some nerve-" Ron starts loudly. "Shut up, both of you! I heard something." Harry interrupts. "Mrs. Norris?" Ron asks, squinting through the dark as they hear a sniffling sound. Looking round they don't see Mrs Norris but Neville curled up on the floor asleep, jerking awake at the sound of their voices. "Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed." he explains, a bit too loud for Ron's liking. "Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere." Ron tells him. "How's your arm?" Deimos asks him. "Fine, Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute." Neville tells him. "Good. Well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later-" Harry starts. "Don't leave me!cI don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already." Neville cuts him off. Ron looks at his watch "If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you." he glares. Hermione opens her mouth but Deimos shakes his head, making her close her mouth again.

The five of them arrive in the trophy room and Deimos looks round while they wait for Draco and Crabbe to arrive "He's late, maybe he's chickened out." Ron whispers. Just then there is a noise in the next room making them all jump "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." Filch tells Mrs Norris. The five eleven year olds look at each other in panic before running out the room as quietly as possible. 0They're in here somewhere, probably hiding." Filch says. "This way!' Harry mouths. They begin to go down a long corridor full of suits of armour, when Neville lets out a frightened squeak and trips. Grabbing Ron for support, Neville knock him into a suit of armour "RUN!" Harry tells making the five of them break into a run. They run down corridors before coming to a halt in the empty Charms corridor"I think we've lost him." Harry pants, leaning against the wall and wiping his forehead. "I - told -you. I -- told -- you." Hermione gasps, clutching her side. "Well good for you." Ron tells her. "We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower, quickly as possible." Deimos tells everyone. "Malfoy tricked you. You realize 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." Hermione tells Harry. "Let's go." Harry sighs.

As they start walking Peeves comes flying out of an empty classroom, giving a delighted squeal when he sees them "Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out." Harry pleads. Peeves cackles "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty." he grins. "Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please." Deimos begs. "Should tell Filch, I should. It's for your own good, you know." he tells them. "Get out of the way." Ron snaps, taking a swipe at Peeves. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" Peeves shouts. The five of them start running again, slamming into a locked door "This is it! We're done for! This is the end!" Ron groans as they hear Filch approaching. "Oh, move over. Alohomora!" she says, pointing her wand at the lock. The lock clicking and the door swinging open, the five eleven year olds piling in and pressing their ears to the door. "Which way did they go, Peeves? Quick, tell me." Filch tells the poltergeist. "Say 'please.'" Peeves retorts. "Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?" Filch questions. "Shan't say nothing if you don't say please." Peeve responds. .All right -please." Filch gives in. "NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" Peeve laughs, whooshing away.

Filch curses and storms off "He thinks this door is locked, I think we'll be okay -- get off, Neville! What?" Harry asks, Neville having been tugging his sleeve constantly. Deimos turns and smiles "Hi baby, oh you're so cute." he smiles, seeing a giant three headed dog in front of them. "Deimos, are you mad?!" Ron exclaims. Deimos rolls his eyes "When I saw, you four get out." he says, crouching down and baring his neck to the large dog "Now!" he says. The other four run out as the dog leans down and sniffs Deimos "There, see, not here to hurt you buddy." he tells the dog. The dog lies down and snuffles at Deimos's neck making him chuckle "You just the cutest, aren't you." he smiles, putting a hand out and letting the three heads sniff it before nudging it. Smiling he starts petting each of the heads of the dog "Oh, who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are!" he exclaims, looking down and spotting a trap door under the dogs feet. "Deimos! Stop playing with it and get out here!" Ron exclaims from behind the door. "I have to go but I'll try and see you again." Deimos promises the dog, giving each head a last pet before walking out the room. "What the bloody hell was that Deimos?!" Ron exclaims. "What? He's cute." Deimos shrugs. "That was extremely stupid and reckless!" Hermione tells him. "Your welcome." Deimos sighs, his hair going a fiery red as he storms back to the seventh floor with the others following.

"Where on earth have you all been?" the Fat Lady asks. "Never mind that, pig snout." Harry responds making her swing open and let them in. The five of them walk in and sit in armchairs "What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school? If any dog needs exercise, that one does." Ron tells the others. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Hermione asks. "The floor? I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads." Harry responds. "No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." Deimos tells them. "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." Hermione announces, storming away. Ron stares after her, his mouth open "No, we don't mind. You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you." he tells Harry and Deimos. Sighing Deimos stands up "I'm off to bed too." he says, walking up to the dorm room and climbing into bed.