That night, I sat in my dorm, book in one hand, wand in the other. It was well past lights out and the small stream of moonlight that normally lit up my bed, was nowhere to be seen tonight.
My wand was lit, shining down on the page I was currently reading. I'd gotten so wrapped up in the chapter I'd been reading, I hadn't noticed the time.
I snuck a glance at the clock on the wall. It was a little past one in the morning. "Bloody hell. Nox." The light from my wand went out swiftly and I placed my book on my bedside table.
I snuggled deep under my covers, doing my best to fall asleep as quickly as possible. A light knock sounded from the door.
Seeing as it was one in the morning, I paid no attention to the knock. Until it came again.
I slowly rose from my bed and cautiously made my way to the door. It creaked as I opened it, holding it slightly open. I didn't expect to see George waiting on the other side of the door.
He stood there, smiling. His red hair fell messily in front of his face, the way I imagine he'd look after just waking up. A pair of pajama pants were baggily hanging off his hips and he wore a worn Kenmare Kestrels t-shirt, of which I'd learned was an Irish Quidditch Team. His favorite, in fact.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" George questioned, then laughed at himself. "Oh, well that was sort of the point really, wasn't it?"
"George?" I wondered aloud. I had many questions for George. How was he in the Hufflepuff dorms, why was he awake, what did he need. But I had no time to ask those questions, because he swiftly pushed the door open wider, grabbed my wrist and pulled me out into the hallway.
"I have plans for a prank, but I need help to set it up. Fred's asleep and he's rather grumpy when he wakes. So I thought you may be willing to help me." My heart fluttered at George's words. A heat crept across my face and my hands had the instinct to fly to my face. I did my best to hide my excitement with annoyance.
"What? You woke me up at one in the morning for that?" I asked. I would not be telling George about how he had not, in fact, woken me up.
He let go of my wrist and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Right, sorry." He turned to leave. "I'll just go, I probably didn't need the help anyway. I'll be going now."
"George, wait." I said. He stopped and turned back towards me.
"Yes?"
"Well, I can't have you wandering the halls all by yourself, now can I?" I said, breaking into a smile. "Someone's gotta keep you outta trouble."
A grin spread across George's face. "There we are. That's my girl."
That's my girl.
His words seared into my mind. His girl. Excitement and serotonin seemed to flow through my veins at the very thought of being George's girl. His girl. He thought of me as his girl?
Oh, don't be silly. I thought. He probably didn't mean anything by it, just a friendly sort of thing. I halted my hopelessly romantic thoughts and broke the silence that had begun to form between us.
"Just one moment. Let me grab my wand." He nodded. I slipped back into the dorm and grabbed my wand off my bedside table.
If my parents could see me now, sneaking off with a boy. I don't know if they'd be furious or proud. A mixture of both, I told myself.
I snuck back into the hallway, seeing George twiddle his wand. Even seeing him do such a simple thing like that sent butterflies to my stomach.
"Ready to go?" He asked, stopping his fiddling.
I nodded. We snuck our way down to the common room, being sure as to not wake any students. The large door to the common room creaked loudly as we opened it. George shushed me playfully and I shushed him back.
Once we were out into the hall, George pulled out an old piece of parchment. It was the same one I'd seen that night Tonks and Hannah had run around the castle. The light from the few lit torches shone onto the parchment.
"Right then." George put the tip of his wand to the piece of parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing were the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labeled with a name in minuscule writing.
There weren't many names, seeing how late it was. George's and I's names were next to the Hufflepuff common room, and Mrs.Norris, Filch's cat, and Filch himself could be seen roaming around on the second floor.
"George...this is." I said, astonished.
"Amazing, yes I know. I wouldn't use it around you if I wasn't so nervous about running into Filch. It's so late, it calls for the map." He said. He picked up a small cloth bag that I hadn't noticed was waiting for us outside of the common room.
"Where'd you get it?" I asked as we began to move down the hallway. Our small ink dots followed with us, keeping the map updated to real time.
"Filch's office. Back in Fred and I's first year. We wouldn't be half as good of the pranksters we are if not for this thing."
"Oh come on. Don't be so modest." I said, following George down a side hallway.
"No, I mean it. The fact that the map shows professor's in real time has saved our arses loads of times. Not to mention, this thing shows hidden passageways all over the grounds. Fred and I used to sneak out all the time and use them. We've snuck off to Hogsmeade loads of times."
"So that's where you disappear to half the time."
George looked at me and smirked. "Guilty as charged."
We made our way through the hallways, as quietly as we possibly could with only our bare feet to hide our footsteps.
Hogwarts definitely had a different atmosphere this late at night. Instead of the usual warm, welcoming feel it normally had, the castle was mysterious and eerie.
"So what's the prank you want to pull anyway?" I asked quietly.
"Quite simple really. Stink bombs right after second period." George opened the small cloth bag from earlier, opening it to show off the dozens upon dozens of stink bombs that sat in the bag, waiting to be used.
I giggled. "That's the most childish thing I've ever heard."
"I'm as childish as they come, L/N."
We went up and down hallways, placing stink bombs next to every classroom. George had cast timing charms on each one, so that tomorrow morning as students left their second period all over the school, they'd go off at the same time. Just as students would be exiting their classrooms.
Sure, it wasn't the work of geniuses, but not every prank had to be one so clever and amazing that only a rocket scientist could've come up with it.
Simple as it was, it'd be funny.
We made our way to the third floor, making sure to avoid Filch and his cat the entire way. We'd made excellent time with the prank, seeing as it was only 4.
We'd covered every floor but Filch seemed adamant to cover the third floor. He'd finally headed back down to the second floor and George and I seized our chance.
"Now, if you head down this hallway and I this hallway we should cover the third floor in record time." George said, directing me towards a corridor.
I grabbed as many stink bombs as I could carry and began to head off when George grabbed my arm. He was looking down at the map, tracking something.
"Wait." I could see his eyes widen from the light of the torches. "This way."
He pulled me through a heavy looking wooden door, and down a neglected looking hallway. Cobwebs littered the ceiling and torch holders. This hallway seemed colder than the others, which may have been due to the fact that no torches were lit.
"George, care to let me in on what's happening?" I whispered. George looked back down at the map.
"Shh, this way." Further down the hallway we went, the pit in my stomach growing. Something about this hallway rubbed me the wrong way, like I wasn't meant to be here.
"George please-" I said, before he cut me off sharply.
"Oh come on, you git." He whispered under his breath. "Bloody bastard is chasing us."
My mind jumped to Filch and his cat as George led me even further down the hallway. We reached a wooden door and George went to pull it open, hoping to escape Filch.
The door rattled against his desperate attempts to get it open. "Damn it! Locked!"
He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and impatience. Panic slowly began to creep across his face, but he did his best to hide it, out of fear of freaking me out.
I quickly whipped out my wand and pointed the tip of it at the wooden doors keyhole. "Alohomora."
Light flashed from the keyhole and I pushed open the door, dragging George into the room behind me.
"As Hermione always says: never panic, just remember your basic spells." I said, as I shut the door closed. He nodded, thankful for my quick thinking.
George looked back to the map, scanning for Filch. I watched as Filch walked down the hallway and quickly lost interest.
I looked up from the map and sighed, relief weaving through George and I. But not for long.
I took a moment to look around at my surroundings and take everything in. Although fear struck me instantly. My stomach dropped like one of those steep roller coasters I always refused to ride at amusement parks.
We weren't in a room, as I had thought. We were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now George and I knew why it was forbidden.
We were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in our direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.
It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at us, and I knew that the only reason we weren't already dead was that our sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.
It took everything in my power not to scream, the only thing keeping me from screaming being Filch's wrath.
George and I exited the room as swiftly as we'd come in, shutting the door as quickly as possible so that the giant of a dog wouldn't get the idea to follow us.
We raced down the hallway, wanting to put as much space between ourselves and the monster. Practically flying down the stairs, we sprinted all the way back to the Hufflepuff common room, George and I hardly caring about the noise we made.
We stopped in front of the common room door, breathless. We took a moment before looking at each other, eyes so wide they could've popped out of our heads.
"What in the bloody hell was that thing?!" George asked, unaware of, perhaps not quite caring about, his volume.
"I have no clue, but what the hell kind of school is this? Hiding a monster within its walls?!" I said back, my volume reaching decimals far too loud for this late at night.
"Didn't you notice?" George questioned, lowering his voice.
"Notice what?" My breath was finally coming back and my heart was beginning to slow back to its normal pace.
"The trapdoor, of course." He stated matter of factly.
"Oh yes, the trapdoor. Sorry, I didn't notice, I was a little distracted by the three heads!" I yelled, annoyance growing in the pit of my stomach.
"Well I'm sorry that you were fearing for your life, so was I!" George yelled back. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. I did the same. "But it was definitely there to guard that trap door."
"What's so important that the school needs to house a monster?!" I asked, still slightly freaked out from our near death experience.
"I'm not sure." He looked at me, and sensing my fear, he pulled me in for a hug. "For now, head back to bed. Sorry for dragging you out of bed this late. Never again." The tone of our conversation had shifted in an instant. I melted into his embrace, feeling as though his embrace was the safest place in the world at this current moment. It was saddening to hear him say he'd never drag me out of bed after hours, but his thought for my safety was sweet.
"Alright. You head to bed too. Make it back to your common room safely." I said as we parted.
He nodded and turned to leave. "We'll talk in the morning. Night Y/N."
"Night George." With that, he left. I waited till he turned the corner, then slipped back into the common room.
I did my best to fall asleep, but my head was so full of thoughts of George and the monster, that sleep seemed almost impossible.