Chapter - 13.3

With Potter pinned against the wall, Alex looked at him with his trademark glazed, cold eyes.

"Care to explain what is going on here, Potter?" Alex asked. And it was so sudden that Potter could only stare at Alex and did not try to resist.

"Get your hands off of him," But, while Potter did not resist, Ron, like a faithful wife, came forward to help Potter.

"... Leave him," Ron took a step toward Alex and said, but before he knew it, Alex grabbed Ron by the collar and pinned the wife beside her husband.

"Why are you always so eager to come to his rescue?" Alex asked, and his face frowned, "But I don't care. Since you are eager to butt in, explain it to me." Ignoring all the squirming of Ron trying to free himself, Alex continued.

"What are you doing outside your dormitories so late in the night?" Alex asked. Ron wanted to keep his mouth shut, but looking at Alex, who did not look like he was in the mood to entertain him, Ron gave up on any resistance.

"Malfoy challenged Harry to a duel at midnight. We are here for that," Ron turned his face away and told Alex.

'That silver head again,"

"And which of you morons accepted and decided to go with it?" On knowing that Malfoy was behind this, Alex felt annoyed. But more than Malfoy, Alex felt that the onus of this mess fell upon Potter and the others.

And as soon as Alex asked this, every other eye in the room turned toward Ron.

"Why am I not surprised?" Alex had a nasty smile on his face. Then he turned his attention to Potter, "But you could have rejected the idea, right?" Alex asked Potter.

"That's none of your concern. I can make my own decisions," Harry scoffed.

"Well, I don't think you can say that". Alex said with a sneer.

"Why?" seeing the scornful smile on Alex's face, Harry asked.

"If you were to get caught today, not only you but the whole of Gryffindor would have taken the toll of it. With the four of you here, the number of points you would lose won't be low. But at least this girl and my sister earn some points for your house. So you don't get a single point for your house, but you think it's right for you to squander them?" Alex let go of Potter and Ron and clapped.

"That..." Harry was at a loss for words. It was true he is yet to earn a single point for Gryffindor, but he has lost a few already.

"To be honest, if you and this red hair were to stop doing anything, your house might have a chance to win the house cup this year," Alex continued to ridicule Harry, but it was all true and a reality check.

"You don't get to lecture me," Although Harry knew what Alex said was true, there was no way he would admit it.

"Or is it because you want to prove yourself?" Alex pointed out, "Harry Potter, the boy who defeated the dark lord still has it."

"Stop talking nonsense..." Hearing Alex, Harry was quick to refuse, "You know nothing."

"Well, true enough," Alex nodded and turned towards his sister. The room was very dimly lit, but Alex could make out who was who.

"Well, true enough," Alex nodded and turned towards his sister. The room was very dimly lit, but Alex could make out who was who.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked Nicole, "Didn't I explicitly ask you to stay away from trouble?"

"It's not my fault this time," Nicole quickly shook her head, "It's all because of her," Nicole said, pointing at the cat in her arms.

Alex had already seen the cat but did not know how she was involved.

"Have you run out of excuses that you are going to blame the cat?" Alex did not believe Nicole in the least.

"I am not lying..." Nicole told Alex. Nicole was not loud, but there was too much weight she put behind her words.

"... It's the truth. It's all because of this cat. I was chilling in the common room with Hermione when she followed these two out of the dormitory. So, obviously, I had to follow behind," Nicole grumbled.

Alex, first looked at the cat and then towards Hermione to confirm if she was telling the truth. Only after Hermione nodded did Alex choose to believe Nicole.

"But what were you doing..." Now that she had told her side of story, Nicole wanted to ask what Alex was doing there.

"What is this smell?" But Alex gestured for her to keep quiet. Now the room fell silent, and everyone could smell the stinking smell in the room.

Apart from the smell, there was also this soft growling that they could hear. Earlier, everyone had their head wrapped up around the hows and whys that they did not even look around them.

Slowly they turned to look behind. And that was when they saw it. For a moment, everyone felt they had walked into a nightmare. Even Alex, who thought nothing could surprise him, was staring at the beast in front of him, unable to move.

"Which floor are we?" Nicole whispered.

"The trophy room is on the third floor," Hermione responded in the same breath as Nicole.

"Then we are..." Nicole did not know how to explain it.

They were not in a room as they thought. They were in a corridor, the forbidden corridor, on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.

In front of them was a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between the ceiling and the floor, staring straight right at them. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Alex could only one reason for that. It was because they had taken him by surprise. And that is the only reason they weren't already dead, but the dog was quickly getting over that initial surprise. And those thunderous growls meant nothing but that.

"Run," As soon as Alex saw the dog lift its leg, Alex yelled. Alex kicked Ron, who was just behind him and sent him crashing into the door. The door opened, and Ron went rolling down the corridor. Following Ron, everyone ran out of the door. Alex shut the door behind him and locked it.

And lucky for them, despite the commotion, Filch was nowhere to be seen. He might have hurried off to look for them somewhere else. But they hardly cared. All they wanted to do was put as much distance between them and that monster of a thing. And so they almost flew back down the corridor they came through.

The five of them only stopped when they reached the stairways. But to their dismay, the stairs were constantly changing, and no one was calm enough to think clearly.

Alex was the only one who was somewhat sane at this moment. He looked at the stairs and tried to identify the pattern. After he was done thinking, Alex pulled out his wand and murmured something. And soon, a tiny speck of light emerged out of it.

"Follow it... It will take you straight to the Gryffindor tower," Alex said, "And don't even think about wandering around. Believe me, I will know it," Alex warned Nicole.

And with that, Nicole and the others followed the tiny light floating in the air. It was neither fast nor slow, but to their surprise, they didn't have to wait even for a second for the stairs to change. They were always on time.

But with time, the light began to dim, and by the time they had climbed the last stair, the spark had extinguished.

But the job was done, and soon, they were standing in front of the fat lady's portrait. But they were not the only ones there. The unlucky Neville was curled up on the floor, fast asleep.

"Neville?" Hermione was the first to approach him and called out.

"Huh??" Hearing someone call out to him, Neville jerked suddenly wide awake.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for god knows how long," Neville whined, sitting crosslegged, almost on the verge of tears, "I couldn't remember the new password to get into bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout'." Ron said.

"Huh??" Neville looked confused, "Isn't it disgusting? Who came up with that?"

"I did... Do you have any problem with that?" Their conversation was interrupted by a sharp voice.

Everyone looked at the source of the voice, and it was the fat lady in the portrait looking at them.

"Where on earth have you all been?" The fat lady asked, looking at their robes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.

"Never mind that... Pig snout," Potter said, not wanting to stand outside any longer.

"What?" The fat lady turned her face away, acting deaf towards Potter.

"The password..." Potter asserted, "It's Pig snout."

"Something got into my ear, I think... I can't hear a thing," the fat lady tried to clean her ear and said.

"Please... Let us in," finally, Nicole stepped forward and tried to play the cuteness card, "Look at our trembling legs... I feel scared outside."

"Ahemm..." The fat lady looked at Nicole through the corner of her eyes and cleared her throat, "Well, you do look flustered. But no more late night outings, mind it," the fat lady said, and the portrait swung forward. And without wasting any second, they scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally, "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hermione had got both her breath and her temper back again.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" She snapped, "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested, "I wasn't looking at its feet. I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She stood up, glaring at them.

"So what was it guarding?" Hearing Hermione, Potter got a bit serious and stood straight.

"it has to be something really valuable," Ron presented his opinion, "Maybe it is the school's treasure house. Filled with gold coins, magical weapons..."

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Hermione felt it was absurd the direction the conversation was going in.

"... Your little adventure could have gotten us killed, or worse, we could have been expelled. Do you think it's a laughing matter?" Hermione said, berating Potter and Ron. And saying so, Hermione stood up from her armchair, followed by Nicole.

"Now, if you don't mind, We're going to bed," Hermione said while pulling Nicole with her. But when they were about to pass by Neville, Hermione stopped.

"How's your arm?" asked Hermine.

"Fine," said Neville, showing his hand to her, "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Good," Nodding at Neville, Hermione walked away with Nicole.

Ron stared after her, his mouth open. He was thinking, was getting expelled really worse than dying?

"No, we don't mind," Ron finally said after Hermoine was long gone, "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know..." Potter sighed and leaned back, thinking about something on his own.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As soon as Nicole and Hermione entered their room, Hermione pulled her along.

"How do you think your brother appeared all of sudden?" Hermione asked as the two of them sat on the bed. She was curious about everything Alex did. But this time, she was not the only curious one.

"I don't know, and from how much I know him, he won't tell me no matter what," Nicole responded with a shrug.

"Do you think he was spying on his little sister? 'The Gryffindor Bella'" Hermione asked teasingly.

"Shut up! I think he was there for another purpose and met us by chance," Nicole said with flushed cheeks. No matter how much she tried, this 'Bella' thing was not leaving her alone.

"Well, whatever the reason, thanks to him, we didn't get caught," Hermione didn't tease Nicole any longer, "Otherwise, we could have lost a lot of points," Hermione said. She has already made her priorities clear.

"Leaving that aside, it sure was a breathtaking experience," Nicole said while recalling the events they just went through. Although she was scared at that time, now it was something worth going through.

"What do you think the dog is guarding?" Hermione asked.

"Beats me, but it must be something precious," Nicole replied.

And the girls talked all night long.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meanwhile, Alex stood by the stairs for some time as he watched the troublesome group make its way to the Gryffindor tower.

And just as he was about to leave, Alex saw a figure emerge from the dark.

"So it were you?" It was Filch standing in front of Alex, "What are you doing outside so late?"

"Nothing you should care about," Alex replied. He did not look flustered at all.

"I need to report everything to him. You know that, don't you?" Filch, with a grim look on his face, said, "He wouldn't appreciate your brazen behaviour."

"Just tell him I took care of the matter," Alex said and walked past Filch.

"Who are you trying to save?" Filch asked, but Alex left without replying.

After that, taking care of the mess, Alex, after coming back to his room, did not sleep right away. He sat in front of the map for some time, and only after he was sure that the troublemakers were not going anywhere, did he decide to call it a night.

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