Living Death

- chapter five

Harry had tried to wake Ron but he was useless when he was half asleep, drivelling on about spiders and tap dancing. He let out a low sigh of defeat and looked back down at the map, watching as your little footprints walked down the hallway of the Dungeons and surely and slowly, up to the main part of the castle. His curiosity got the better of him and he grabbed his wand, pulled on some boots and headed out of the Gryffindor tower with the map clutched firmly in hand. He'd have to go alone.

He could see Filch wasn't about. No one but you and him were currently appearing on the map of the corridors. From his calculations it looked like you didn't have a set destination. You would briefly pause before carrying on walking sometimes, but that was it. He had managed to get up to the same corridor as you now and he felt his heart begin to race.

He knew ghosts could appear on the map but he had a sort of nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach that this wasn't the case right now, and even so, if you were a ghost, he could maybe at least talk to you and find out why or how you had died. He clutched the map and his wand a little tighter, his breathing becoming a little staggered.

The silence of the corridor made the whole experience more terrifying. You were getting closer now, walking straight on towards him. He lowered the amount of light beaming from his wand, blinking a little and looking down at the map with every step you took then up at the dark corridor ahead, rapidly breathing and frozen to the spot. But before you could become within seeing distance, another pair of footsteps were approaching. Filch he could deal with. But these belonged to Professor Snape.

He quickly put out the light of his wand with a short whisper of 'Nox', but the darkness lasted no more than a second as the corridor was lit again by Snape's own Lumos charm, close enough to him to be almost blinding. "Well Well Potter.. going for a late night stroll are we?"

If Snape's wand wasn't directly in his eyes, he would've sent him the most sarcastic of stares but it didn't really work when he was squinting. "If you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you could lower your wand"

Snape slowly and surely lowered his wand, eyeing Harry with a sort of disdain. He didn't have time for Potter's shenanigans tonight, you were out of bed and roaming the corridors like he specifically informed you not to do.

"Get back to you dormitory now, or you'll find yourself spending your free time switching Quidditch matches for detention, do I make myself clear Mr Potter?"

"Yes" Harry said plainly, he didn't want Snape to pry further into what he'd been up to.

"Yes Sir." Snape corrected.

"There's no need to call me "sir" Professor"

The words had escaped him before he knew what he was saying and before Snape could retort back with a promise of a month's detention, he quickly took his leave.

Snape snarled a little as he watched Potter run away, and as much as he would've revelled in robbing Potter of his beloved Quidditch, he had to hurry up and find you before anyone else did.