The Smart Choice

Chapter 10 - Halloween

The next few months passed by relatively smoothly. Harry was the top student in the year by a good margin, Hermione, Daphne and Susan taking second through fourth with a small amount of help from Harry every now and then. Malfoy thankfully hadn't hassled any of them since his quick duel with Harry. While Weasley on the other hand probably would have if not for Neville keeping him in line. It had been figured out early on that Neville's wand wasn't compatible with him and so he struggled with casting even the simplest of spells. Once his gran was convinced by McGonagall, Neville got a new wand and slowly improved. Harry had grown a lot closer to Blaise, Daphne and Tracey over two months and the four of them were rarely seen apart. Harry thankfully hadn't had any more problems with Dumbledore, he knew the old man was plotting something but didn't know what. Harry had also grown a bit closer to Snape. Harry now called him Severus when no other students were present, he spent a lot of time listening to Snape tell him stories about growing up with Lily. There were another two things that concerned him. One was Quirrell, Harry was even more certain there was something up with him after watching him carefully for two months. Although he didn't know what it was, he knew it was nothing good. The other issue was that around the end of September, him and his three fellow Slytherins were heading up to the room of requirement one Saturday and the staircase changed direction leaving them with only one path. They walked through a door and walked down a dark corridor until they reached another door. That was when Daphne spoke up.
"Guys this is the third floor on the left hand side. We shouldn't be here." She said this too late however as Blaise had already unlocked the door in front of them.
"Let's just take a peak and then we go back." Said Blaise opening the door.
Suddenly they all froze in place seeing a giant three headed dog in the room before them. The dog looked up and charged at them barking. The only person who acted was Harry, he quickly flicked out his wand waving it causing an orange light to emit from then end and a set of bars appeared in the door way. Stopping the dog from reaching them. They slammed the door shut, Harry locked it and removed the bars. They ran for the stairs and quickly made their way to the room of requirement without saying a word. Once in there they all breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Merlin that was terrifying!" Tracey exclaimed.
"Yeah it was, sorry for opening that door guys." Blaise said sounding a little stressed.
"You okay Daphne?" Harry asked seeing his friend was very shaken and almost in tears. Daphne stood in place looking down and nodded slightly. Harry could see the tears forming and did the first thing that came to mind. He stepped forward wrapping his arms around Daphne in a soft hug. Daphne quickly latched onto Harry tightly, the tears starting to fall. Harry could feel her shaking in his arms and rubbed her back soothingly. About five minutes later, Daphne released her grip on Harry and stepped back slightly not meeting his eyes as if embarrassed. "Sorry Harry." She said quietly.
"Hey, what are you sorry for? You didn't do anything wrong." Harry said putting his arm around her shoulders and leading her over to one of the couches by the fire. Blaise and Tracey were at the table trying to research what they just encountered.
"Daphne, I know you don't like to show emotions to most people, especially when it's fear. But we're your friends Daphne, we care about you. You shouldn't be ashamed of showing your emotions to us." Harry said in a soothing voice.
"Thank you Harry. That means a lot to me." Daphne said with a small smile to her friend, "You saved our lives with those bars, what was that thing anyway?"
"My best guess is that it was a Cerberus, they're indigenous to Greece so I don't know what one's doing here. Blaise and Tracey are looking through some magical creatures books but only just started." He said getting up a gesturing Daphne to follow him to the table.
They looked through many books for hours, only finding limited information. All they found was that music made it sleep. Needless to say however, they didn't go back to the room housing the Cerberus for a second look.

It's now the Monday before Halloween and Harry and friends have just finished potions. They had just brewed a sleeping draught and as usual the two pairs of them had the two best potions class. Snape then spoke. "Potter, could you stay behind for a moment please?"
Harry nodded and told his friends he'd meet them in the hall.
"What is it professor? He asked.
"Well Harry, I'm sure you're aware it's Halloween on Thursday."
"Yes Severus." Harty could sense this was about his parents deaths.
"Well, in honour of Lily I don't like to celebrate it. I don't know how you feel about it, but if you would like, my office will be open to you Thursday evening rather than going to the feast." Snape said sadly.
"Thank you Severus, I think I'll join you. I'm the same, I don't like celebrating the day my parents died." Harry replied.
"Okay Harry, I'll see you around six o'clock then?"
"See you then Severus, have a good day."
"You too Harry." Snape said as Harry exited the classroom and headed to the great hall to study for an hour before lunch.