Chapter 11
Heading down another hall Alyssa gave a small sigh, heading through the maze that was Hogwarts. She loved the beautiful castle, but it was definitely easy to get turned around in. The halls looked fairly similar; though the paintings were all different, even if their subjects were constantly moving around between them, there were a number of hidden passageways that went through tapestries, or behind paintings. The doors that would only listen if you asked nicely or tickled them in just the right spot. Those were when the doors were actually doors and not just solid wall pretending to be a door.
Those could be bad enough on their own; and they tended to move around constantly, but then there were the stairs. There were one hundred and forty-two separate staircases, and Alyssa had taken the time to count them. To figure out their behavior. The narrow rickety ones, the wide sweeping ones. The ones that lead to different places on different days, the one with tricked steps. While Alyssa knew mazes, they also knew magical oddities even more, and only one explanation made sense to her.
Due to the amount of magic that had accumulated, possibly the way it was built, the school itself was probably somewhat sentient itself.
“You are a brilliant, but you’re not really helping.” Alyssa whispered letting out a soft sigh. “I just want to know what I’ve been seeing in my dreams.”
Of course, the school didn’t respond, but she could tell that something had shifted in the ever-changing school.
“Thank you.” Alyssa smirked, pausing as a shadow ahead shifted, allowing herself to be cloaked by the darkness around her as Mrs. Norris started down the hall. Rolling her eyes, Alyssa shifted her shadow allowing their younger self to materialize. A light fog; not deep enough to real in the monsters, took in the halls, Alyssa taking a few deep breaths as the cat took after the shadow being.
“Every. Time.” She gave a nod, faltering as they traced the hallways.
“Why are we headed back towards the grand staircase? Was I that far off?” She mused, pausing as a clattering hit their ears. “Shit!”
Picking up the pace Alyssa scanned the hallways as she ran, giving a nod as they found herself by the Charms Classroom, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Nevil panting as they bolted out of a hidden passageway.
“I think we lost him.” Harry panted and Alyssa gave a nod.
“I told you!” Hermione panted at Alyssa leaned against the nearby wall. “I-told-you!”
“So y’all got played? Sucks, but we shouldn’t stay here. Though that does mean that that I have yet to learn the twists as well as I thought. And could have just gotten lost and not lead.”
“Lead?” Nevil asked and Ron shook his head.
“We need to get back to the Gryffindor Tower!” He spoke. “Fast.”
“Malfoy tricked you. You know that right? He was never going to show in the first place.” Hermione glared softly, crossing her arms as they started away from the classroom.
“I know Hermione, and I’ll make this better. I will put something proper in place but that isn’t important right now. We need to get back to our dorms.”
Of course, things were never that easy, they hadn’t gotten that far before a doorknob in front of them began rattling. As Peeves turned, he let out an excited squeal.
“Peeves- shut- up. You’ll get us kicked out.” Harry hissed and Peeves let out a cackle.
“Wandering around at midnight ickle firsties? Tut tut tut. Naught naughty, you’ll get caught.”
“How about a bargain? I’ll tell you how to summon a fifth dimensional imp if you let up pass.”
“Should tell Filtch I should.” Peeves said in an angelic voice, though his eyes sparkled mischievously. “Four your own good it is.”
“Get out of the way Peeves.” Ron glared, taking a swipe at Peeves. Alyssa quickly swatted his head as Peeves took a deep breath.
“STUDENT’S OUT OF BED!” he bellowed, and Alyssa quickly scanned the halls. “STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORIDOR!”
“Bathroom!” Alyssa hissed, leading the way as they ducked under and around the Poltergeist.
“You want to get us cornered?”
“Trust me for the time being, I can get us further away from here!” She growled.
“Any other time and I would agree, but not with Nevil! He couldn’t handle that.” Harry should his head and Alyssa let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head. “We can’t go with this big of a group anyways.”
“Fine! I have another plan, but you won’t like it if I say it.”
“What?” Hermione glared.
“I know a door that Flitch will think is locked. It’s just-“
“Were.” Nevil interjected and Alyssa gave a nod as they reached the grand staircase. “Let’s go then.”
Alyssa led the way to the corridor, right to the end, allowing Hermione to unlock the door before they filed in. Quickly Alyssa closed the door behind them, smirking as the others turned to them.
“Oh, by the way I should mention that we’re on the third floor. The west wing to be exact.”
The four friends turned to glare coldly at her, no one speaking as they heard Flitch shouting at Peeves not too far away. It wasn’t long before his voice trailed away, a dark growling reaching the five student’s ears, Nevil going entirely pail. Turning, Alyssa chuckled slightly as she took in the massive, snarling, three-headed dog.
It was impressively sized, black or very dark brown and incredibly still. Massive strings of saliva webbed between sharp yellow fangs and Alyssa gave a nod, smiling brightly.
“I like you; I’ll find a good way to get past you without hurting you.” She smiled, putting herself in front of her friends. “But I do need to keep you from hurting them. So, I’m going to have to kindly suggest that you back off puppy. But Harry, I suggest you find a way to ask Hagrid about this.”
“Alyssa.”
“Go.” She sighed, quickly summoning their baseball bat smirking as she rushed forward. Quickly they jumped as one of the heads snapped at her, landing on it and using it to launch herself higher into the air, launching her bat as the final head went for her friends as they scrambled out of the door.
Quickly they landed rolling out of the way of the heads, slipping back in the upsettingly small room.
“Oh, you pour baby. You’re not that old are you, and this is hardly a good place to keep something of your size.” Alyssa shook her head, slipping under the animal, quickly calling upon the fog to summon two double heads, their radio beginning to buzz.
“Sorry bout this.”
Sensing the greater danger of the two monstrous hounds the Cerberus turned for them allowing Alyssa to reach the door. As The pup let out a pained yelp however, guilt yanked at her heart, and they groaned. Grabbing their bat, she put it away before summoning their L96A1 sniper rifle.
“Cooperate with me on this one big boy.” She said, taking quick aim. The darkness of the room wasn’t really an issue with their mask’s Detective Mode, but the moving targets definitely didn’t help. Taking a few deep breaths, they found her first target before pulling the trigger, taking out the first dog’s spinal dog, both dogs turning to dust as the Cerberus tore the second in half. “Good boy. I’m sorry about that.”
As it turned back to her, Alyssa pulled out a semi large bowl that she had found, pouring an ample into it as well as a few health drinks before sliding it forward.
“I know it doesn’t smell good, but it will make you feel better.” As the dog began snarling, they gave a nod, eyes quickly landing on what it was guarding. “I’ll just leave it here for you. And I am sorry.”
Quickly Alyssa headed out, heading back up to the tower, the Fat Lady glaring softly at her.
“And I don’t figure you will tell me where you were?”
“Snooping. Now Pig Snout.”
As the portrait swung open the Fat Lady rolled her eyes, Alyssa heading in and stretching her arms.
“Sorry I took so long mon amies, what did I miss?”
“If you didn’t use your eyes wither, the trap door.”
“No I noticed that and I fucked up so- Well the dogs Alive I just complicated things and made a fight for myself.” They shrugged. “It was guarding something and now I really want to get past it so I can figure out what.”
“I hope you all are proud of yourselves! We could have been killed- or worse expelled!” Hermione snapped standing quickly, glaring darkly at Harry and Ron, then over at Alyssa. “Not if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed!”
As Hermione and Alyssa headed for the girls dorm Ron started after them.
“No, we wouldn’t-“
“Then shut the fuck up. That’s a shit retort and you know it.” Alyssa shook their head, quickly heading into the room, closing the door behind them before starting to get changed. “Hey, Hermione?”
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I mean it. While on the one hand you really didn’t have to come with us, I kind of get why you did. And you handled things really well.”
“Th-ank you?” She faltered, eyes going wide as she took in Alyssa’s injuries in the moonlight. “What… Is all that?”
“Uh, Acid burn, En-point scar, I have no idea where it came from, and that one-“ She pointed to a large, dark looking burn scar on her stomach. It was again fairly large, wrapping onto their side in a deep red, two large brown-red spots indicating just how charred they had been. “Is a remnant of when I auto combusted, which is just a story for another time. So, let’s not worry about it too much right now.”
“I… Guess.” She nodded. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, of course.” She gave a nod. “Now we should get to bed, and we can talk in the morning. But you have to understand this; Harry isn’t just trying to be a pain, or anything like that. He genuinely wants to be good person; he wants to help Draco even.”
“So why agree to duel him?”
“Because Draco needs to learn, they need to fight.” Alyssa gave a small nod, pulling on a pair of silk Pajamas. “And Harry is learning, this is a different place for him and he’s figuring things out.”
“I guess.” She gave a small sigh, shaking head as she changed as well. “He just… It seems like a lot is going on.”
“Probably, but we’re going to figure it out. Everything is going to be okay Hermione. I promise.”