The 'Duel'

In the hours before the duel, I was only able to get Harry to successfully cast Stupefy… once. However, considering that Harry knew virtually nothing about offensive magic to being with, I can consider it good progress.

The time has finally come and as we are about to leave Hermione comes down the stairs into the common room. She has a bit of a scowl a bit off-put by her bright pink night gown.

"I'm coming with you" She demands

"No, you're not." Ron shoots back.

I give Ron an odd look 'Why does this boy feel like he is the leader?'

I turn to Hermione "He's right, you aren't coming… not in those bright pink robes at least. They stand out way too much."

Her smile gets wide and she takes off her bathrobes revealing her real robes were under the entire time. I can hear a loud groan come out of Ron, I smirk a bit, making him unhappy is a bit fun.

'This girl is too smart' Seeing she has robes already on I also sigh a bit and roll my eyes.

"Do you think it's a good idea to bring another?" Harry asks.

I shrug "I don't think she would take no for an answer anyway."

We take our time sneaking to the trophy room on the third floor. When we get there Malfoy hasn't arrived yet so I decided to show Harry the Trophy his father had won. The crystal case glistened in the moonlight full of cups, shields, plates, and statues of silver and gold.

"Harry come here." I gestured to the case.

One of the trophies in front made of wood had some bronze badges on it. The center one read "JAMES POTTER 1971 CHASER" I point it out to Harry.

"Woah," Harry says taken aback "My dad was a chaser?"

"Yup, the best in his years at Hogwarts, so it's pretty fitting that you got placed as a seeker. Playing quidditch is apparently in your blood." I pat his back as Ron also looks in admiration.

As Harry is looking at the Trophy in awe I hear a meow come from down the hall. I quickly peer around the hall to see the shadow of Filches cat approaching.

"Don't Worry Mrs. Norris we'll catch those kids if they are out of bed." I heard filch say.

I grab both the boys' shoulders as they are distracted "Guys it's a trap, Filch is coming. Let's get out of here." I gesture to Hermione to go first as I say in a loud whisper.

As we are stepping silently out the opposite corridor I see Mrs. Norris look at me and meow loudly. "Run!" I yell in a hushed tone. We all break into a sprint down the corridor, as an opening comes up on our right I hear Harry speak.

"This way." He turns into the doorway and runs right into the backside of a painting. He tears right through it and falls through then Ron on top of him then Hermione on top of them both. I check behind us to see Mrs. Norris way down the hallway, luckily she isn't looking this way.

I quickly pick them up like fallen puppies and we continue down the corridor. This time at a much less rushed pace, it let out at the end of the hallway next to our charms class. Seeing how far we are from Filch I calm down a bit as we begin to walk.

"I guess it's not a loss, now Harry knows how to defend himself and we didn't actually get caught," I say trying to lift the mood.

"Malfoy ratted us out" Hermione points out, both Harry and I nodded.

"I'll break his nose next time I see him," Ron says making me roll my eyes.

"Oh, son of a-" I'm cut off by a rather annoying voice.

"Hello, Children." Peeves floats down in front of us with a stupid grin.

"Peeves I swear, if you ev-" I'm cut off again.

"Don't worry… I'm doing this for your own good." A wicked smile grows on his face.

"RUN" I speak in a half yell and take off down the hall, the trio quickly follows behind me.

"KIDS ARE OUT OF BED! KIDS ARE OUT OF BED IN THE CHAMBER CORRIDOR!" Peeves yells as loud as he can.

Anger fills my head as I slow down and get behind the trio. I project my voice to the stupid specter out of anger.

'If you show your face in front of me again you will be devoured.' I turn back ahead to see we are running straight at a door.

As Ron and Harry touch the door first they jiggle it aggressively. "It's locked." Ron says in a terrified yet quiet tone.

"Move over." Hermione pushes Harry and Ron out of the way. She puts her wand up to the lock and chants "Alohomora."

The door lock clicks and starts to swing open, we all pile in and quickly close it behind us. As we turn around we see a giant 5 meter tall 3 headed dog with pitch-black fur. The room was small, it was only big enough to hold the dog, but I notice the dog is resting on top of a trapdoor. The dog seems to be sleeping but I pull out my wand just in case it wakes up, everyone else is petrified.

"Slowly open the door, we have to be quiet," I whisper.

Ron slowly starts to open the door since he was the last one in. Even while opening it slowly it makes a creaking sound. I flinch seeing the dog slowly shakes its head before groggily opening its eyes.

"Go, Go, Go!" I say push both Harry and Hermione behind me. The dog quickly gets up upon noticing us. Both Ron and Hermione got out before it could get back. I push Harry out of the room roughly as I step back assuming a casting stance.

Before it can get too close I chant "Petrificus Totalus" a white light leaves my wand striking the dog on its closest head. The dog freezes as its legs curl in falling over with an incredibly loud thud. I sigh turning away from its snarled muzzle only a few feet away.

I look at Harry on the ground "Let's go" Harry nods terrified by tonight's events..

As we close the door I can hear the dog bark and hop up. The bark is quickly followed by a slam I can only assume is its body striking the door.

'How did it get free so fast? What a resistant creature.' I think to myself.

We all rush back to the center of the corridor where a small exit is, it leads to the main stairwell. We got really lucky, the staircase's aligned to the entrance of Gryffindors common room perfectly.

As soon as we get in I hear Ron start to yell "What in the bloody hell are they thinking!? Keeping such a dog like that locked up in a school for children?

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione interjects.

"What do you mean?" Harry asks only a bit less shaken than Ron.

"There was a trapdoor. It was underneath the dog." I add rubbing my forehead.

"I was too busy staring at its teeth to notice" Harry shivers.

"We could have been killed, or worse… expelled." she sighs. "Now if you don't mind I'm going to bed."

I just shake my head "She is right that was dumb. We should go to bed as well." Ron and Harry nod.

"We have potions in the morning and I don't want Snape to have any more reasons to hate me," Harry says.

That morning when we head to breakfast we see Malfoy already eating. When he sees us his jaw drops and his food almost falls out.

I turned to Ron and Harry "I'll be right back."

I walk over to Malfoy, he looks kind of scared as I approach him with a smile on my face. "Hey I have some stuff to discuss would you mind coming to have a chat out in the courtyard?"

Malfoy looks back and forth between Crabbe and Goyle then finally nods with newfound confidence. "Yeah, I wouldn't mind chatting with you." he has a smug smile.

"Great, just follow me" my smile gets wider. Across the room I see Ron and Harry looking at me with concern.

Malfoy stands up with Crabbe and Goyle close in tow behind him. As we walk out I notice Harry and Ron start to follow far behind trying to be stealthy. They aren't good at it.

When we make it to the main courtyard it is completely empty, probably since it's too early. I turn around to face all three of them while pulling out my wand. They are smiling like I am a lamb to the slaughter.

They all start to pull out their wands but I am not that nice. "Stupefy, Stupefy, Expelliarmus" I wave my wand and chant three times. I don't chain the spells, I simply cast them quickly. Mainly because I don't want to reveal my cards to any spying eyes.

Crabbe and Goyle both fall to the ground unconscious and Malfoy's wand goes flying. As the two fat kids fall I shake my head in disappointment.

"Simply too large for their own good."

I smirk as I look back up at Malfoy "You know I may not know how to do many charms or transfigurations but I know my Defence Against the Dark Arts very well… I also know quite a few curses. Courtesy of House Black."

Malfoy falls back and starts to scream "Silencio!" I quickly cast before he can attract any attention. He tries to scurry away from me "Locomotor Mortis" his legs latch together and he can't scurry anymore. He desperately tries to pull himself away tugging at the grass.

I walk up to stand above him, putting my foot on his hand to stop him "Don't worry, I won't be too harsh since we didn't actually get caught." My smile grows wider "Calvario" all the hair on his head begins to fall off till he looks like a naked mole-rat.

"You won't tell anyone about this right?" Malfoy shakes his head vigorously which makes me laugh "I'm kidding you won't be able anyway, Mimble Wimble" I cast the tongue-tying curse so he can't speak of what has happened this morning.

I peer at him over my shoulder as I step over to the two fat lugs "Give my regards to my Aunt tho."

I stand above the unconscious Crabbe and Goyle and do the same. I find a bit of joy in making them bald and unable to speak of what happened to them. I smile as I walk back into the castle to see Ron and Harry slack-jawed while 'hiding' behind small stone pillars.

"That was wicked," Ron says as he grows a large grin.

"Yeah, you have to teach me some time," Harry says nodding in agreement.

I shrug "Sure, maybe later, let's go eat for now, I'm hungry." I look back to see Malfoy struggling to stand up.

'He knew the counter-curse. Huh.' Although leg locking is a common trick I'm still surprised he knew the counter-curse.

Later that day at potions we once again see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle walk into potions late and get into trouble. Everyone was is laughing at them for being bald but I just pretend I see nothing. At least I was nice enough to let them keep the eyebrows.

What caught me by surprise was Hermione tapping my shoulder "What did you do to them?" Her question finally makes me laugh.

"Just a little payback." She probably knows it was me because they have been glaring at me from the moment they stepped into the classroom. I just shrug and continue doing our assignment ignoring the glares from the three monks.