"Hullo there, now what brings a little firsty like you up to the fourth floor?" A bright voice nearly startled him as it broke the previous lull of stealthily quiet footsteps.
Before he had heard their approach, he had been distractedly following the faint trace of birds, many of them, that he had picked up somewhere on the third floor, Chipped Fang excitedly leading the way at the thought of them, but frequently paused in distraction at movement from the many talking portraits that lined the walls. Hearing their approach though, he had stopped and slipped into an out of the way, shadowed corner sheltered by a suit of armor to watch them pass by. Surprisingly, they had caught on immediately.
"Blimey!" The second had exclaimed in a similarly overdone way, "Why I do believe it's Harry Potter? Do you think he's lost brother mine?" Their tone implied they believed he was anything but.
"Oh, I don't know, he seems rather comfy in that corner of his, not at all lost, perhaps he's doing something... suspicious." Two sets of identical hazel eyes landed on him, staring with an intelligent sort of intensity waiting for his response.
Harry stared back, letting the quiet sit, the two were already getting restless, but not the type most people got when it came to silences, not uncomfortable, more the type that came from boredom, like cats playing with a cricket, only for the cricket to hold still rather than flee. They were wondering if they should up the anti or if he was frozen and unsure already and just surprisingly good at hiding it for someone bad enough at making excuses they couldn't find something to say to explain the current situation. As the tactic wouldn't get him anywhere, he figured he might as well answer before his silence provoked the two far old students to prod at him further.
"No."
"Oh?" The second one asked, both moved closer so they weren't speaking from all the way down the hall anymore, and Harry watched intrigued as they walked in step with each other, switching sides twice in their quick approach, "Then what brings a sneaky snakeling like you all the way up here?"
'Who do they think they are?' Chipped Fang loudly interrupted, twining about his legs, knowing that the two newcomers had noticed both of them, 'You said the elders here say no combat in the halls, yet here these humans are openly challenging you.'
Harry shrugged in response to Chipped Fang but addressed the two probably Gryffindor students, "Just looking around."
They both eyed him skeptically for a moment longer before they seemed to snap back into a more cheery- more human- disposition. "Well! If you say so."
Discreetly, he took a closer whiff at their scents, they smelled near identical to each other, more so than most members of the same pack did or even those from the same 'family'- it was interesting to note considering he'd never met human twins before. The scent similarity went from their base scents to the scents which naturally overlapped onto their own, much like potioneers, they had the smell of fire and many of their ingredients hanging off of them like a cloud- they had brewed something, recently, the strength and freshness of this odor said. But they were human, purely so and without one of those 'animagus forms' like Mcgonagall had.
"Say, if you want to see something really cool, there's a caved in tunnel on the second floor by the East tower stairway... if you can find it that is."
They had flanked him now, and he could easily recognize that the two of them were very distinctly trying to subtly guide him away from whatever it was that they were working on, whatever potion it was they were working on, on the other side of the corner.
"That's the only hint which you are getting from us, by the way." One stated.
"Can't make it to easy for you," The other continued the thought, "We don't give hints out like that to just anyone you know."
"So don't go spreading it around okay?" The first twin finished.
"Right." He drawled, with a cautious glance from one to the other and back again. At the same time Chipped Fang cut in, 'We should see what the two are hiding from us.' He silently communicated his agreement, but aloud only questioned, "You seem to know me, but what were your names again?"
"Ah, can you believe? He doesn't know who we are," The second bemoaned.
"Well, he is just a first year," the first commented, "So I suppose it can be forgiven. But really, we need to step up our game if it's almost been two months and the firsties don't even know to flee on sight."
"Why of course, that goes without saying, we should go jot it down on our schedules, shouldn't we?"
"Why yes," they turned their attention to Harry again as one, "Well, I'm Fred Weasley, of course,"
"Of course," the other agreed.
"Devious prankster extraordinaire, and this is my brother George,"
"Also known as the genius menace of Hogwarts who holds the record of most detentions in a year."
The other sighed despondently, "I'm two detentions behind him, you see, which really isn't my fault! He just took both of the detentions for himself, greedy bastard that he is." He then grinned, "Which of course gave us just the alibi we needed."
"Don't worry, you can hold the record this year,"
"Ah yes, I'm counting on it, we still need to send Ginny that toilet seat; remember?"
"Well, why put off until tomorrow what can be done today?"
"How true, we really must be going, great meeting you," the two went to make a quick exit, but quickly paused to look at him again.
"Oh. And tell us when you find the tunnel will you? If you manage within the week, we'll give you a hint to an even better passage." And they were off.
He continued just until he knew he was out of their senses before he and Chipped Fang turned about to explore where the two had come from, the tunnel passage could wait, it was entirely likely that the twins would try and relocate since they knew he had wandered close to it and might return to continue where he had left off.
Before they did that he wanted to know what they were hiding. He turned the corner, realizing only then that while the previous hallway only had a handful of tapestries and suits of armors, this one was completely empty of any of the wall hangings which crowded many of the walls in other places. Chipped Fang stalked carefully ahead to investigate a statue that sat on the side of a small semicircular alcove. This, and the matching statue which sat on the other side of the path as the first were the only decorations. He silently leaped over the statue on the side of the alcove to get a better look out the window.
It was almost like the window itself was a portrait, because he knew the castle was not as close to the forest as it was showing. He was pretty certain this area of the castle shouldn't even be overlooking a forest. He moved closer, his hand reaching towards it.
'Chipped Fang, come look at this.'
'Look at what?' Chipped Fang asked rounding the statue he had been sniffing around to clamor up and onto his shoulder.
'How close we are to the forest, that's not possible.' His hand slipped past the threshold, an odd cool sensation passing over it like the air was unusually thick, almost like water, but not quite, and he quickly pulled his hand back.
'I don't see a forest.' Their annoyance and confusion was easily conveyed.
Harry frowned, but turned away from the window, to continue to explore the hall while he could, someone was coming. 'Then what do you see?'
'A village,' they poked their heads into one empty classroom after the other until they had explored all five of the classrooms that ran along this section of the hall, they turned the corner to continue down the next hall, 'I don't see what they were trying to hide here.'
'Me neither' Harry sighed, 'Do you want to go right or left?'
Chipped Fang looked at him as if he had gone mad, 'We can only go left.'
The footsteps were getting closer, Harry could now distinguish a second step that ran quietly ahead of the first, Filch and Mrs. Norris, it was time they left, Filch didn't particularly care what the rules were, if he caught you in an out of the way part of the halls on your own, you were in trouble. Mrs. Norris would probably notice their presence soon too, turning down the hall, he made his swift retreat only to slam into a barrier as he reached the two statues.
He held back a groan, pushing himself upright and checking his surroundings as well as the infamous duo's progress. Mrs. Norris had caught onto them and was making her way over quickly now. He saw Chipped Fang on the other side of the barrier, staring at him with concern and annoyance for suddenly being thrown.
He motioned for them to stay where they were, his eyes catching onto the statue he had leapt over to enter the hall to begin with, maybe that was still passable for him, he tested the waters carefully poking one arm through before hurtling over the statue. Having easily passed, he continued his quick pace, Chipped Fang dashing after him.
He was just about to make the turn to return to the dungeons, now on a much more populated section of the halls when he heard Mcgonagall's approach. "Mr. Potter," she called, "how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, ma'am." He smoothly replied.
"Good, that's good, just know that the staff here at Hogwarts care very deeply for all of the students, you can speak with any one of us, myself included, if you need to. You're not alone."
She was peering at him closely and rather delicately. He had to push back a scowl at the look. He didn't like the feeling of being watched so closely anymore than he liked that she had already come to the conclusion that he was seeking out seclusion out of weakness like a spider curling up somewhere dark and out of sight to die.
"Yes, ma'am." He was finally remembering to place the sir and ma'am onto the end of his sentences which would save him quite a few disapproving looks and lost house points, although that had dropped off after his fight with the large dog.
"Excellent, that's good, anyway, I was hoping to speak with you briefly about your latest essay, I'm well aware that the past month and so at Hogwarts has been a very difficult time for you..."
He was probably lucky he had ran into the Cerberus, it excused his poor handwriting and limited written vocabulary just fine in their eyes, so paired with his good practical scores, it had helped his grades in all but potions.
He held back a sigh though, if he hoped to take one more excuse from them to speak with him without outright saying why he would have to improve his reading and writing skills, quickly. He should probably speak with Theo about that, they wrote in small, fancy letters that held typewriter accuracy at two or three times his own writing speed.