It’s a Puppy!

Hermione was beginning to hate her time at Hogwarts. It wasn't the school or classes that were the problem, although Potions class was starting to worry her; instead, it was the students.

Between most of the Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws shooting her dirty looks whenever she answered a question, and some of her own housemates that insisted on either accompanying her everywhere and chattering incessantly or playing pranks on her, she was starting to go mad. Only halfway into September, and Hermione felt like she was going to lose it.

Today was one of those times where she had all of them mixed into one. First, Rose had insisted on talking to her the entire way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As if that weren't a bundle of irritating laughs, the Infamous Weasley Twins decided to make an attempt at improving her spirits.

Now, Hermione wasn't certain that it was the Weasley Twins, but they were laughing the hardest at the prank.

The prank merely consisted of switching the hair color of Rose and Hermione. Rose's unique hair color mixed with Hermione's volume of hair resulted in quite a show. Other students were laughing, although those were mostly the Slytherins.

Upon seeing that her hair color had changed, Rose hopped up on the table and crouched down right in front of the Twins.

"Fix it!" Rose hissed.

"Relax!" George, or maybe Fred said.

"It'll wear off soon!" Fred, or possibly George added.

"It's just–"

"–a little harmless fun–"

"–to get you two–"

"–to lighten up a bit!"

"Besides, you can't–"

"–prove it was us!"

<It was them,> Reflectesalon told Rose.

"You two–!" Percy shouted.

"Settle down, Percy," the Twins said simultaneously.

Rose continued to glare at them, but backed up a few inches on the table. She shook her head, sending her hair shaking around with it. As it flew around her head, her hair returned to its normal crimson color.

The Twins stared at her.

"How'd you do that?" they asked together, grinning.

Rose had noticed that they didn't stop grinning. They were like Bowie like that, except with fewer teeth.

Rose grinned, and sat up on the table. Holding up her hands and wiggling her fingers, she said, "Maaaaaagic!"

Rose's grin faded, and she opened her mouth, but Percy beat her to the punchline.

"Now fix Granger's hair!" ordered Percy.

"We can't," the Twins said, turning to Percy.

"When will it wear off?" asked Rose.

"In about ten hours–"

"–give or take a few hours."

"How much is a few?" asked Rose.

Serendipity had found her way into Rose's hand while Percy had everyone's attention. It was only Hermione that happened to glance over at just the right second to see Rose's wand appear in her hand.

What? Hermione thought. How did she do that?

"One–"

"–maybe two."

Rose grinned. She stood up on the table, then hopped off it, brandishing her wand as she did.

"Daßulriata!"

Hermione's hair returned to its normal color. Her face was flushed, and she had started trembling, because she didn't like all the attention that having crimson hair had been getting her. It had not been a good few weeks for her, but what she saw certainly cheered her up a bit.

In addition to fixing Hermione's hair, Rose's spell had given both of the Twins bright pink hair, which was done up in irregular pigtails all around their heads. Even the word "bright" didn't quite describe it; it was neon, almost glowing. But the icing on the cake was the copious amounts of blush, eyeliner, and lipstick that now adorned the Twins' faces. It made them look just like a pair of circus clowns ready for a performance (Which, when Hermione thought about it, fit them perfectly). Hermione glanced down and noticed that their robes were now multicolored. They were adorned with a mixture of bright pink, green, orange, and yellow, the collection of which made for robes that clashed with themselves.

Everyone that was watching, which by now was most of the Great Hall, burst out laughing. Even Percy had to try hard to keep his face neutral.

"There you go, Percy," Rose said. "They're just a couple of class clowns."

Percy pressed his lips together, forcing himself not to laugh. As a prefect, he shouldn't be encouraging this behavior, even if his brothers had been the target of a school prank.

The Twins turned to face one another, and they themselves burst out laughing. Still laughing, they turned to Rose.

"Of course you know," they both said, "this means war!"

Rose grinned, and leaned closer to them.

"Challenge accepted!"

Rose sat back down next to Hermione.

"Thanks," Hermione said quietly. She and Percy might have been the only two students in the entire Great Hall not laughing.

"No problem," Rose replied, grinning.

Maybe she's not so bad, thought Hermione.

"What was that spell you used?"

"Seeming, triggered by the Illumian word for 'hair'." Rose chuckled. "A little ironic that they even have a word for hair, considering Illumians are bald. Although, they are Illumians; they were literally born from language! And they've got letters that orbit their head! It's kethé!"

Nope, there she goes again, Hermione thought, talking about things that don't exist. Still, how did she do that?

Rose ran into her own problem that afternoon.

"Up!"

For whatever reason, people in the Rowling Plane used brooms to fly. It wasn't the flying itself that was the problem; she could fake that with stormrage. Rose could even understand the whole "flying on brooms" thing.

"Up!"

It was the fact that they were expected to pick up the broom without touching it. For the other students, this wasn't an issue. Harry Potter got this on his first try, Ronald Weasley his second, and Neville Longbottom's broom hit him in the face.

For Rose, however, brooms did not count as magic items. She wasn't sure whose bright idea that was, but it meant that she couldn't get the broom into her hand without touching it. She could just power surge Serendipity again, but it didn't seem worth it to Rose. Instead, she had to settle for not being immediately talented at something, which was frustrating, given the time and effort she'd put into it.

"Up!"

After a few tries, she gave up and just picked up the stupid broom. She also made a mental note that giving herself the ability to cast mage hand at will could be nifty. She also made a mental note to use the word "nifty" more often, as it was a fun word.

Sighing, Rose mounted her broom as instructed. It wasn't that difficult, although she wondered why they didn't just fly with magic. They must be able to fly with magic. Otherwise, what kind of magi were these people? Rose was an Artificer and she knew better than to use a broom to fly. A first-level Wizard could easily grease the seat and then the rider would go flying. A phoenix cloak was much better for it if they wanted to use items, or the variety of flight spells available if they didn't care. Rose had picked stormrage because it allowed her to shoot lightning from her eyes.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madame Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle–three–two–"

Unfortunately, Neville got a bit too jumpy. He flew straight up before Madame Hooch blew her whistle and proceeded to fall off of his broom. Rose wondered why their instructor, didn't just stop him from taking falling damage. Couldn't she just cast feather fall? It would have saved her the trip to the Hospital Wing. Could she cast it? Was she just caught off guard? Why hadn't she just readied an action? Did she not realize one could ready an action?

Whatever the reason, it meant that Madame Hooch left a bunch of 11-year-old students unsupervised.

Sally-Anne tried to shrink into the background when this happened. She didn't want any attention, especially since the only attention she ever received from her peers was negative. Without an authority figure to protect her, she was both afraid that she'd be singled out. Potions class was bad enough with Professor Snape glaring at her and the other Gryffindors. Sally-Anne didn't know what to do during Potions class, since Professor Snape was the authority figure. How was she supposed to make it through class when the professor was literally waiting for her to fail?

Sally-Anne noticed that Draco Malfoy, one of the Slytherins, picked something up off the ground. Sally-Anne wasn't sure what it was, but it looked like a glass orb of some kind.

"Looks like Longbottom dropped something," Draco sneered.

"Give it here, Malfoy!" Harry shouted.

That was odd. Sally-Anne had always thought Harry was shy, since he didn't talk much and kept his head down. Maybe he was just antisocial.

"Make me, Potter!" Draco shot back. He mounted his broom and kicked off, taunting Harry with the bauble.

"Harry, don't!" Hermione shouted when Harry went for his own broom. "You heard what Madame Hooch said! You'll get in trouble!"

"Who asked you?!" Ronald shot back.

He's well trained, Rose thought. Harry's even got his cohort fighting his verbal battles.

"I can't just let him get away with that," Harry said, mounting his broom.

Harry kicked off into the sky, chasing after Draco. Harry shot after Draco, who lazily dodged aside.

"You want this, Potter?" Draco said, holding up the orb. "Fetch!"

Draco hurled it towards the castle, and Harry raced off after it. Just before Harry ran into the castle, he snatched the trinket out of midair. He grinned, tossing the object in the air and catching it.

After he got to the ground, the Gryffindors, sans Hermione (Who was shocked that students would so blatantly break the rules), Sally-Anne (Who was terrified by the entire ordeal), and Rose (Who didn't care) cheered.

Right on cue, Professor McGonagall stormed out of the castle and demanded that Harry follow her back inside. After they disappeared from sight, Draco and the two Orcs that followed him around burst out laughing. The other Slytherins soon joined them.

Rose ignored them when she noticed how upset Sally-Anne looked. Rose hopped off of her broom, upon which she had been sitting while drawing during the spectacle. No longer supported by Rose, the cleaning implement fell to the ground as the crimson-haired girl walked over to her dirty-blonde roommate.

"Sally-Anne, are you alright?" asked Rose, tilting her head to the side, as she often did when asking questions.

"Harry almost died catching Neville's… whatever it was called," Sally-Anne whispered. "How is that funny?"

"It's not," whispered Hermione from behind the girls.

"Then why are they all laughing?" asked Sally-Anne. She looked like she was on the brink of crying.

"Because they're horrible people," Rose replied. "There was a student at my old school just like Draco. Walked around bragging about how wealthy his family was. Sort of like how Draco always manages to mention his father or his money. Remember the first thing he said out here? 'My father already taught me how to fly, but our brooms are so much better than this one.'"

Sally-Anne smiled at Rose's impression of Draco's voice.

"Are you mocking me?!" Draco demanded, having heard Rose's imitation of him.

"Only because you put too much grease in your hair," Rose replied.

Sally-Anne and Hermione began to back away from her, not wanting to get involved anymore than they already were.

"I dare you to say that to my face!" Draco shouted walking right up to Rose.

"So long as I don't have to touch it," Rose replied. She tilted her head to one side. "You'll want to take about two steps back."

"Why's that?" Draco sneered. "Afraid?"

"No, but Madame Hooch is gonna be here in a few rounds, and you'll get in trouble if it looks like you're trying to pick a fight."

Draco backed up just in time to see Madame Hooch walking quickly back into the yard.

"Professor McGonagall has already informed me that Mr. Potter is not going to be joining us for the rest of the lesson," she said. "The rest of you, let's try that again."

As they continued their flying lessons, Hermione wondered how Rose had known when Madame Hooch would be returning.

"I can't believe it!" Hermione ranted over breakfast the next morning. "Did you hear that they made Harry the Seeker of Gryffindor's Quidditch team?"

That caught Rose off guard. She wasn't sure what Quidditch was, but it didn't sound like a punishment. Ronald Weasley, Harry's cohort-in-training, even sounded excited about it, judging by the way he had been talking nonstop about it.

"Can you believe it?!" squealed Lavender excitedly. "And he's only a first year!"

"That's not what I meant!" huffed Hermione.

"I'm sitting right here," said Harry quietly from a few seats down the table.

"Relax, Hermione!" said Parvati.

"What's a Quidditch?" asked Rose.

Most of the Gryffindors that heard her turned to stare at her.

"How do you not know what Quidditch is?" Ronald asked her.

"She's Muggle-born," muttered Hermione.

"Oh," Ronald replied. "Sorry."

"Another mudblood," came the voice of Draco Malfoy. "You shouldn't hang out with so many of them, Potter. That can't be good for you."

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Ronald barked.

"No, seriously, what's a Quidditch?" Rose asked again.

"Getting the Weasley to fight your battles for you, eh, Potter?" Draco sneered, ignoring Rose. Maybe his face was just stuck like that.

"Duh," said Rose. "That's what cohorts do. They either fight so the PCs don't have to, or they carry the PC's stuff."

"I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me!" shouted Harry, also ignoring Rose.

"Prove it!" Draco shot back. "Midnight in the trophy room."

"I'll be there!" Harry responded.

"You know what? I'll just go look up Quidditch in the library," Rose said, getting up from her place and walking off. "Also, you're a Wizard, so at the very least, you're going to need a meat shield."

That night, Rose noticed that Hermione was doing homework in the Common Room way later than she should have been. Rose also noted that the other Gryffindor's face looked pale, and her eyes were lined with dark circles.

<She's trying to stop Harry and Ronald from leaving,> Reflectesalon informed Rose.

"Trying to stop them?" Rose asked.

"Hoping to," replied Hermione. "They're going to go out, get in trouble, then Gryffindor will lose points! All to settle some score with Malfoy!"

"How else are exciting things going to happen?" Rose asked.

"I don't want exciting things to happen," Hermione replied. "I don't want to get in trouble, I just want to learn."

"Fair enough," Rose said. "Still, aren't you the least bit curious about what's going to happen?"

"No," Hermione said. "They're going to get caught, then they'll get into trouble. They'll lose points or get expelled. Hopefully they'll just get expelled so the rest of us don't have to suffer."

"Who cares?" Rose asked. "House points don't mean anything. Look at the big picture. Who cares if we don't win this year? The winners don't get extra credit, they just get bragging rights for a while. Nothing permanent."

Hermione blinked a few times. That was strangely coherent for the odd girl. When Hermione thought about it, Rose had a good point. Still, something felt wrong about simply letting the boys keep getting into trouble. Hermione felt obligated to stop them.

"Whatever you say, Rose," Hermione replied offhandedly.

"I tried," Rose said, walking up the stairs to their room. "Good night, Hermione."

"Night, Rose."

A minute later, an invisible Rose blinked through the portrait of the Fat Lady. If there was something important happening, then Rose wanted to be in on it. Who knew what kind of exciting events would transpire? There might even be XP! Rose loved XP!

In hindsight, Hermione should have just gone to one of the prefects. Percy seemed pretty upstanding, and Alex had been really nice, so either of them probably could've handled this. They certainly would've handled it better than Hermione had.

Having not done the sensible thing and stayed out of it, Hermione now found herself locked out of Gryffindor Tower with Harry, Ron, and Neville, who had forgotten the password. Again, apparently.

"We should wait here!" Hermione hissed. "I'm sure one of the prefects will be here soon to let us back in!"

"Alex finishes her rounds in half an hour, I think," Neville said. "I'm not actually sure what time it is, but I think she gets back soon."

"Harry's not going to back down from a fight, will you Harry?" Ron said, ignoring Neville.

Hermione was really starting to detest that boy. How was it that Percy was the only sensible one in his entire family? Never mind the legendary troublemakers that were the Weasley Twins, but now Ronald was simply asking for trouble.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the Trophy Room. The entire time, Hermione had tried to convince the boys to just head back to the common room, but Ron wasn't having any of it. He brushed off her comments the whole way there.

"I don't see Malfoy anywhere," Harry said, looking around the Trophy Room.

"Probably got too scared," Ron said triumphantly.

"Or this was all a trick to get you in trouble!" Hermione hissed. "We have to go! Filch could be here any minute!"

Argus Filch was doing another round of the castle, looking for any students who might be out after curfew. He hadn't been lucky enough to catch any of the little rats yet, but he knew his time would come. It was just a few weeks into the term, and the first-years always sneaked out of their rooms. When they did, he would be waiting.

He rounded the next corner on the third floor and spotted something. He moved towards it and saw what looked to be a student. But looking closer, he realized that it wasn't; it was the Girl in Red.

Argus had spotted her twice already. The first time she had been just outside the library, and the other time he had found her wandering the halls on the second floor. The only reason that he hadn't been able to catch her was because she could vanish. It had been that that tipped off Argus to the real truth: It wasn't a student, but instead an illusion.

Not being able to use magic, Argus wasn't actually sure how to create illusions, or even if it were possible, but if it were, it was exactly the sort of thing those wretched Weasley Twins would do.

Argus didn't like the students, but those two boys had given him trouble from Day One. Argus was certain that it was them behind her. They had made her a girl to try to throw Argus off their trail, but he was on to them.

Argus held up his lantern, and the cloaked figure turned to face him. Was she wearing goggles? He had never gotten a good look at her face before. He had noticed her wearing a dress, so he was fairly certain that she was supposed to be female.

"You there!"

"Shh!" several of the portraits shouted.

"Put that light out!" added one.

Argus ignored them and started walking towards the girl. Where ever they were, those two miscreants had to be close so that they could watch. Perhaps, if Argus were lucky, he'd be able to spot them this time!

Or so he thought. To Argus' misfortune, the Girl in Red vanished once again. Cursing under his breath, Argus ran up to the spot where she had been standing a moment ago. He looked around, trying to find a hiding place, but if they had been there, then the Twins had already run off.

"Did you see anyone?" he asked one of the portraits.

"No, I was sleeping!" the man in the portrait replied. "And I'd like to get back to it!"

Argus lowered his lantern, and continued with his rounds. He decided to ignore the whole situation for the moment. Argus took one last look around before continuing on towards the Trophy Room.

"Shh!" Hermione hissed. "I thought I heard something!"

They all paused to listen for a moment. Sure enough, the boys heard it too. It was the sound of footsteps, accompanied by someone muttering under their breath. They all knew that voice.

"It's Filch!" whispered Neville. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Right!" whispered Ron a little loudly, heading for the door.

The four of them bolted out of the Trophy Room.

As he ran, Harry looked back over his shoulder, and, to his dismay, he spotted the reflection of light off of a pair of eyes.

"It's Mrs. Norris!" he hissed. "Filch's cat! She's following us!"

"Quick, this way!"

The four of them turned to see the Rose motioning for them to follow her.

"Rose?" Hermione asked. "I thought you went to bed."

"Quickly!"

Hoping that she knew what she was doing, they ran down the corridor after her. The crimson-haired girl led them down the corridor, making turns seemingly at random, until finally she pulled them into a room, and the four of them stopped for breath.

"I don't hear Mrs. Norris anymore," Harry whispered. "I think we're safe. Thanks Rose."

"No problem!"

Hermione thought for a moment, trying to get her bearings. Horror crossed her face when she realized where they were.

"We're in the third floor corridor, aren't we?" she asked. "On the right hand side."

It was at that point that the five of them heard a low growling coming from behind them. Turning around, the Gryffindors saw a large, three-headed dog climbing to its feet.

"Is that–" Harry began to ask.

"IT'S A PUPPY!" exclaimed Rose, throwing her arms up in excitement.

The other four first-years screamed and bolted from the room.

Rose turned her attention away from the "puppy" to see the rest of her party fleeing.

"But… but I wanna pet it!"

She turned back to the dog, which was snarling at her.

A while back, Rose had decided that it would be fun to be able to understand any living creature. After doing some research (otherwise known as bugging Sk'lar until he told her), she found the spell speak with anything, which allowed her to do exactly that, and then some. Rose could speak with and understand anything except a dead body, which included the dog before her.

"Oh look," the middle head snarled. "A snack."

"Yum," the left head agreed.

"Delicious," the right head concurred.

"Why are you here?" Rose asked.

There were several aspects of this scene that intrigued her. There was a trapdoor under the dog, which probably meant it was protecting something, but what was so important that someone had brought a large, hostile dog into a school?

The large dog ignored her as it continued to advance on the girl.

"Who brought you here?"

Still, nothing.

"Last chance," Rose said, crouching down. "I warn you, this isn't going to be fun."

Still, no response from the dog.

"Alright, then," Rose said, grinning. "Have it your way."

Fluffy had been ordered to stay in that room. The Master had commanded it, and so Fluffy knew to obey him. It was his responsibility to keep people out of the room. He didn't know why, but it didn't matter to him. All three of his heads agreed that they should listen to the Master.

Fluffy was now faced with a small Human child. Most children were afraid of Fluffy due to his overwhelming size, but this little one didn't smell of fear. Instead, she smelled confident, like a pack leader or the Fuzzy Beard Man that had accompanied the Master when the Master told Fluffy to stay in the room. She smelled differently than other people, like she didn't belong there. All three of Fluffy's heads agreed that there was something wrong with this girl.

As Fluffy advanced on her, determined to scare her away, a small stick appeared in her hand. She wasn't honestly thinking of throwing that, was she?

SHINK!

The girl didn't throw it, but instead it made a loud noise and turned into an even larger stick. Then she lept at Fluffy.

The last thing that Fluffy remembered was the girl spinning around in a circle, and a sharp pain in both of his legs. Then everything went black.

Rose folded up her weapon and made a quick Heal Check on the dog to verify that it was still alive. She required information from the dog, a requisite of which was it being alive. Now that it was unconscious, it couldn't make the will save against her to resist having its mind read, which was Rose's intention all along. Also, she really liked getting to use her primary weapon.

She crouched down, producing Serendipity and power surging her. Using the spell probe thoughts, Rose began to pry the dog's mind for information.

<What's your name?>

<Fluffy,> the dog replied.

<Why are you here?>

<The Master demands it.>

<Who is the Master?>

She got an image of a large, bearded man leading the dog to this room and telling it to stay. She recognized the man as Hagrid, the Grounds Keeper. Accompanying him was Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster.

<What's through that trapdoor under you?>

<I don't know.>

"Thank you, Fluffy," she whispered, breaking off the spell.

Rose turned to leave. It took at least five minutes to get back to Gryffindor Tower by foot, and it had been about a minute since the other Gryffindors left. She decided that she should probably catch up with them to avoid suspicion.

Before she left, Rose used another charge from Serendipity to cast heal on Fluffy. The dog got up and began barking at Rose.

Defiant to the end, I guess, thought Rose as she ran from the room and closed the door.

"I wish I knew where Hermione Granger was," Rose whispered in Dwarven, expending yet another charge from Serendipity for discern location. Rose immediately got a clear idea of where in the castle the other Gryffindors were. Rose grinned and expended the fourth charge from Serendipity.

Hermione was trying really hard not to think about the ten-foot tall, three-headed dog in the castle. Really, really hard. She tried to keep her mind focused on finding her way back to Gryffindor Tower as fast as she could, and ignore the fact that there was a creature that could devour them all in seconds in the same building as her bed.

"Follow me!"

Hermione almost tripped over her own feet when Rose just appeared in front of them. The crimson-haired girl just popped out of one of the walls!

Yeah, Rose, cos following you worked so well last time, thought Hermione.

Surprisingly, it did work out well this time. Rose led them on what might have been the most direct path to Gryffindor Tower. Hermione heard the girl whispering now and then. Either Rose was asking for directions, or Hermione was so tired that she was beginning to hallucinate. It really could've gone either way at that point. Hermione hadn't been sleeping well, and this incident with the dog was only going to make things worse. How was she supposed to sleep knowing that thing was in the castle?

As they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Rose whispered the password. The portrait swung open, and the five of them quickly climbed through.

They all stopped to catch their breath in the common room. Hermione was not looking forward to climbing seven flights of stairs just to get back to her bed. Instead, she found herself briefly contemplating sleeping on one of the couches in the common room. They looked so comfortable, and weren't up seven flights of stairs.

"What," Ron panted. "Was that thing?!"

"Fluffy!" Rose exclaimed.

Unlike everyone else, Rose wasn't the least bit tired.

"What?!" Harry panted.

"It's name!" Rose said, grinning. "It said its name was Fluffy!"

"Well I'm glad you thought that that was so amusing!" Hermione said sarcastically.

"Why is that thing even here?!" asked Ron.

"Didn't you see what it was standing on?" asked Hermione.

"You were looking at its feet?!"

"There was a trapdoor," Rose said.

"Why would it be on a trapdoor?" Harry asked.

"That's a good question, Harry," Rose said. "Exactly the line of thinking a PC should be using. Well done."

"Rose!" shouted Hermione. "Now's not the time for your–!"

"Hermione, please be quiet," Harry urged. "You'll wake everyone else up."

"We could all have been killed," Hermione hissed. "Or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

She stormed off to the girls' rooms, no longer caring that there were seven flights of stairs between her and her bed. She just wanted to be in a place without other people in it.

"She needs to get her priorities straight," Ron muttered.

"Not really," Rose said, heading towards the girls' rooms. "Dying's easy to fix. It's a lot harder to convince them to reinstate us after we've been expelled."

The three boys stared at Rose as she disappeared into the girls' dorms.