golden quartet | ron weasley

year 1 | chapter 8

We all sighed before making our way out of the classroom. Why won't anyone believe us?

"That was no stranger Hagrid met in the village," Harry explained. "It was Snape, which means he knows how to get past Fluffy."

"And with Dumbledore gone..." Hermione continued.

"Good afternoon," Snape said slowly from behind us, causing us to turn around. "Now what would four young Gryffindors such as yourselves be doing inside on a day like this?" He looked at us for an explanation as I furrowed my eyebrows. As if we were the only ones inside?

"You want to be careful," Snape replied after no one answered, "People will think you're...up to something." Snape cast a suspicious glance at Harry before turning and walking away.

"Now what do we do?" I whispered.

"We go down the trapdoor. Tonight," Harry whispered back.

Once it was late at night, the four of us went into the common room before heading out when we were stopped by Trevor, Neville's frog.

"Trevor," Harry stated as the frog croaked.

"Trevor! Sh, go! You shouldn't be here!" Ron yelled at the frog.

"Neither should you!" Neville said, peering around the chair. The four of us stopped in our tracks. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?" he asked as he stood up from the chair to face us.

"Now, Neville, listen. We were--" Harry started to explain.

"No! I won't let you," Neville said, standing his ground and blocking us. "You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again! I—I'll fight you!" He put his fists in the air, and I had to admire his confidence.

"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this," Hermione said, pulling out her wand, "Petrifucus totalus." The spell turned Neville stiff as a board, and he fell to the ground, unable to move.

"You're a little scary sometimes, you know that?" Ron gulped, "Brilliant. But scary."

"Let's go," Harry said, leading us out of the room. They whispered apologies as we went by.

"I'm sorry Neville," I peered down at him, "We wouldn't do it if it wasn't extremely important."

We quickly shuffled underneath Harry's invisibility cloak to the third floor and Hermione unlocked the door. As we walked in, we noticed the giant three-headed dog again, and it was peacefully sleeping. We looked to see a harp playing itself.

"Snape's already been here," Harry concluded. "He's put a spell on the harp."

"Ew, it's got horrible breath," Ron said as it snored loudly in our faces, causing our hair to blowback. I nodded in agreement.

"We've got to move his paw," Harry said as he approached it.

"What?" Ron said quickly as if he was crazy, but Harry was having none of it.

"Come on," he said, bending down. We pushed the heavy paw, keeping a close eye on the many heads of the dog to make sure it didn't wake up. Harry lifted the trap door and we peered inside it, only seeing darkness. "I'll go first. Don't follow until I give you a sign. If something bad happens, get yourselves out." I smiled at Harry's caring nature, always putting himself before others. "Does it seem a bit quiet to you?"

"The harp. It stopped playing," Hermione pointed out. We looked up to see the dog was wide awake now and standing up looking angry. We quickly jumped down the trapdoor before the beast could get us and landed softly on a pile of vines.

"Woah," Ron breathed out, "Lucky this plant thing is here, really."

"Woah!" Harry added as it began moving around, suddenly wrapping itself around us. My arms and legs were constricted, and I was unable to move. I desperately tried to free myself.