16

Chapter 16: Nightmares Abound

As time continued forward Harry seemed to become more and more restless. Something seemed wrong. Very wrong, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Professor Quirrell was... Unsettling to be around. His stuttering was far too frequent to be a natural ailment but then again the excessive stutter could be a side effect of the acute paranoia that he seemed to suffer from. Whatever had happened with those vampires must have really done a number on him to cause that.

Though that didn't explain the other reasons that caused him to feel awkward around the professor.

The professor had taken to looking at him... Oddly. As though he were an obstacle in his way or even in some obscure form of jealousy. That is, when he actually looked at Harry. The professor had a habit of making sure that Harry was constantly behind him even when addressing a question that he had asked, he would simply turn and face the board even though he did no writing. Whenever this happened Harry would be overcome with the feeling of being watched by someone unpleasant yet there was no one in the room who could have caused it...

When his unease was not directed at the professor then it lay firmly with whatever was being contained behind the doors in the third floor corridor.

Whatever it was that was being kept locked away in there seemed to be growing restless itself if the faint rumbling of growls or the sound of claws scratching against marble flooring was anything to go by.

What exactly Dumbledore had deigned to hold within the castle that could cause death to any unlucky student that so much as chose the wrong door worried him greatly.

The man was a fool, greater than any he had had the misfortune to have encountered before. The only bright side to the whole foolish episode was that the reign of Albus Dumbledore would soon come to an end. That is, if he even made it through the remainder of the year.

Until then Harry would wait and be prepared. He and his friends had already agreed that they would travel in groups if only for the company that it offered.

It was even growing more and more common place for those of the various houses to mingle with each other out side of classes. In fact, the four house tables in the great hall were quickly becoming mere tables and to think, it all had begun because of an escaped toad!

Everything was falling apart. Sure his social standing still held some small smidgen of power but that meant little to him now...

He might have been able to come back from the Gringotts incident, they were only goblins and perfectly able to forge those documents. All he would have to do would be to pad a few pockets with what was left, steal what he still needed and he could finally be rid of those bloody nuances but no. He couldn't, not yet. They might be of use later...

He could even come back from what happened with the Potters! A grief stricken parental figure doing what he thought best to keep those he viewed as his children safe.

It could have been so simple given enough time!

But no, no someone just had to go digging! Just had to find out about Ariana, about his father, about Grindelwald!

Rita Skeeter was out for blood and she was getting it. She wasn't even working for the Prophet anymore, it appeared that she was privately hired by some new company that paid extremely well. It was... Disconcerting.

Added to the political aspects of his problems was the fact that the Diggory boy was still fighting. It even appeared that he was winning now as opposed to merely holding it at bay. That letter he had received in the great hall seemed to have been the turning point. The potion was still there, still effecting him, but not nearly as much.

That also lead to his greatest problem however...

WHO THE HELL WAS WITH HARRY BLOODY POTTER!?

How was he supposed to gain back control of the boy when someone else was holding him up!? It was bad enough that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were back in the picture but they were just pawns and easily overlooked. Neither stable enough to provide a decent foundation to keep Potter from falling so it had to be someone else but who!?

How could he get the Potter boy back under his control? He had little that he could offer the boy anymore...

Unless...

Yes, perhaps it was time to bring out the mirror again. If he could get Potter to look into it then he could find out his weakness, find out what he could use against the boy.

Then he could exploit it and he would finally have the upper hand again and the boy would be his!

Unbidden the memory of Harry Potters appearance from yesterday came to the front of his mind...

His luscious pale skin had positively glowed against the emerald green of his shirt. The neck having scooped down to show the barest hints of chest, the fabric fluttering about his lithe form to settle along the top of his black clad thighs...

Yes, he would get the Mirror of Erised as soon as possible. The sooner the better...

The school year had been going for two months now and still things were new and magical. Everyday Harry would see or hear or learn something new that seemed to make the world that much brighter.

Once a week, on occasion twice, Harry would get a letter from Charlie describing the reserve, his friends and the dragons themselves. He would also make sure to end each and every letter by telling Harry how very much he loved him. When Harry received those letters his smile wouldn't fade for the rest of the day.

Yes it wasn't quite the same as actually seeing Charlie but it was a close second. Each time he saw Charlies handwriting his heart would speed up just that little bit faster and it seemed as though he had finally released a breath he had been holding for far too long...

A true breath of fresh air he hadn't been aware that he needed...

Halloween that year fell on a Thursday and with it came the delicious scent of baking pumpkins and other sweet things that helped rouse the normally deep sleeper to the great hall so that they could get their fill on the various wonders that had been prepared.

Harry took delight in listening to Hermione's grumbles on how her parents would surely kill her for eating sweets so early in the day. Of course she went on to accentuate her point by biting into a rather large cinnamon roll.

To make the day that much better Professor Flitwick had finally deemed them ready to begin practical charms work!

By the time lunch had came only the Gryffindor's and the Hufflepuff's had attended charms producing very different results.

Ron, who had been paired up with Seamus Finnegan, had at last discovered the hidden reason behind their uniforms cap as he was forced to use it to put out a fire that was caused by his partner to which he was teased that said hat appeared to be flame proof on account of his hair.

Harry and Neville however had no such story from their own class other than the fact that Justin had managed to cause Ernie's bag to float and could not get it back down until the professor had stepped in.

To put it simply, by the time lunch was finished Hermione was practically vibrating in her seat with excitement.

Harry, Ron and Neville were worried. Very worried.

Usually Hermione would have met them after classes were over in the library so that the four could go over their school work before Ron could get too relaxed but she hadn't shown up.

Yes, on occasion she was late because she had decided to talk with one of the teachers but never like this!

Once half an hour had passed they decided to go and look for their friend starting with the Transfiguration classroom, which was empty, and then they headed outside to the Black Lake, which had plenty of people milling around it but no Hermione.

At five they went in search of the Twins. If anyone would be able to find her it would be them, and the map but Harry hadn't told the others about that yet.

On their way to the Gryffindor tower they were stopped by two other first years, both Ravenclaw, Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst.

"Oh thank Merlin we found you guys!" Terry panted as he came to stop in front of the small group.

"We've been looking for you for ages!" Mandy said as she laid a hand on Terry's back as he bent down to hold onto his knees. "You're looking for Hermione aren't you?"

"Yes, have you seen her?" Harry asked before Ron had a chance to be rude. He loved him he really did but sometimes his mouth overrode his brain.

"She's in the third floor lavatory," Mandy said with a frown as she looked between the three. "She's been in there ever since Charms ended. Lisa Turpin said some rather nasty things to her and now she won't come out of the stall!"

"Thanks you guys," Harry called over his shoulder as the trio began to head for the third floor. "We owe you!"

The third floor girls lavatory was located just down the hall from the forbidden door. When you exited the staircase you would have two options, the right hand door that would cause death or to go left. A little ways down the hallway, nestled between a statue and a tapestry stood the entrance to a room that the three boys would usually avoid at all case.

Now however, was no time to feel awkward...

"Hermione?" Harry asked with a blush as she slowly edged open the door and peeked in. "Hermione are you in here?"

"Harry?" Came the sniffled response that forcibly shoved all further awkwardness away and allowed for Harry to quickly bolt into the room, concern for his friend overpowering all else.

"Oh 'Mione," Harry breather as he quickly made his way over to where his friend sat curled against a wall beside the sink. Without a seconds hesitation Harry quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her close as she began to cry.

Whatever Lisa Turpin had said to her Harry wouldn't allow it! She had made one of his best friends cry and that wasn't right!

Behind him Ron and Neville were also thinking similarly if their talk of recruiting the Twins was anything to go by.

"'Mione, what happened?" Harry asked when she had finally calmed down enough for a conversation.

"Lisa was having problems with the charm," Hermione all but whispered as she clutched onto Harry's robes tighter, "We were paired together so I tried to help but when I was able to do it and she wasn't she got angry. She called me a lot of nasty things and said that you three didn't really like me and that you were just using me. I don't believe her but it still hurts Harry! All of the other kids at my old school were like that and it just got under my skin you know?"

"Oh 'Mione, you know we love you," Ron said as he and Neville took up spots on either side of the two. "We'd never use you like that. Lisa's just jealous that she doesn't have such great friends as you do!"

"You really think so?" Hermione sniffed as she looked up at their smiling faces with watery eyes.

"We know so 'Mione," Neville piped in as his grin grew wider. "Think about it, we're probably one of the closest groups in this whole school! We sit together because we want to and not because of our house, we cheer each other on despite our houses and we can actually talk about more than Quidditch!"

"That's true," Hermione said with a small smile as she held onto Harry tighter, "You guys are like the brothers I never had!"

"Well, I've had plenty of brothers and a sister, I do believe that you all fall into those ranks," Ron said with a smirk as he reached over to ruffle Harry's hair, "Especially since one of you has already been adopted. You know what, I say that we all get our families together sometime! Make it official!"

"That's a great idea Ron! I don't think that my Gran would mind, she's really happy that I've made friends already."

"Then that's settled," Harry said with a smile as he nudged Hermione to get her attention again. "How about we head down to the feast and let Lisa Turpin know just how wrong she is?"

With a giggle and a nod Hermione stood and wiped carefully at her face as the three boys stood themselves.

"Well, let's hurry up then," Ron said seriously as he started towards the door, "The feast has already started and I don't know if you lot remember but this is a girls lavatory and Mum'll kill us if she hears about this!"

As the quartet exited the lavatory time came to a crashing halt.

In front of them stood a creature from their nightmares.

The creature stood at a towering twelve feet, it's small bulbous head just shy of brushing against the arches in the ceiling hunched over as it was. It's skin was a mottled putrid grey in color and clusters of gnarled skin speckled its hide. It was a giant of a creature appearing to be almost as wide as it was tall with disproportionate limbs. It's legs were practically stumps compared to it's arms which dragged across the ground behind the creature.

A putrid mixture of foul scents assaulted their nostrils and caused their stomachs to roil as bile climbed up their throats and threatened to come out.

Their stunned stillness was broken by Hermione's shriek of terror.

Moving quickly Neville clamped his hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek but the damage had already been done.

With a muffled grunt the creature turned and looked at them with it's beady eyes for a moment before, quicker than should be possible for a creature so large, it rose its great club and brought it down on them.

Moving quickly they dove out of the way only for the club, which turned out to be a large tree trunk, to swipe towards them against the ground.

Dodging around the attack they headed towards the closest available safety, the lavatory. Just as they went to enter it again the club swung down and this time it connected.

With the sound of wood cracking and the shattering of stone their exit was blocked and they were yet again forced to dodge away from the doorway and subsequent rain of rock and splinters of wood.

Moving with instincts formerly unknown to him Harry quickly grabbed onto the nearest persons arm and quickly pulled them after him and between the creatures stubby legs.

Once through Harry turned, he didn't care which way they went, either way they would reach a stairwell.

Moving quickly he ran, still pulling whoever it was behind him and absently taking comfort in the three other sets of pants and clapping footsteps.

He didn't even need to look to be able to tell that the creature had just noticed them fleeing. With a mighty roar that shook them to their bones the creature moved, its long arms swiping out in front of it and its heavy footsteps shuffling and pounding behind them.

Either the creature was so large the hallway was trembling or Harry was just that far gone in panic.

Don't worry about that! Keep moving, keep moving! There's the stairwell!

"No!" Harry cried out in despair at the staircase as it finished its swing to the other side. Of all of the times for it to change why now!?

Looking around desperately Harry felt his heart lurch to a stop. There were only two options left.

The forbidden door which held a creature with claws that growled, or the creature behind them that was quickly catching up.

Or...

Or they could open the door and hope that whatever was behind it could handle this thing! That and this thing could at least keep it busy long enough for either the staircase to come back or a Professor!

With his mind made up and the creature coming closer Harry got to work.

"Get to the sides of this door and get down now! Alohomora!" Vaguely he noted the idiocy of a first year spell being able to open a door that spelled death but now was no time for that.

The moment the lock came up Harry grabbed the doors handle and pulled while diving out of the way though not quickly enough as a massive black form dove from the room and forced the door, and Harry himself, into the wall.

Taking huffing breathes and waving off Neville's concern Harry watched the ensuing confrontation with wide eyes.

Before them stood a large black dog with three heads as big as the creature it faced as it took up most of the space in the corridor itself. Crouched down as they were on the floor the four were easily able to see the other creature from between this ones legs.

A deadly growl tore itself from the Cerberus' throat as it lunged forward and sunk it's long yellow fangs into its opponents shoulder causing blood to spurt out from the wound.

With what seemed to be a snorted snarl the creature rose one of its long arms to claw at the Cerberus' eyes with short and stubby fingers only for its efforts to be rewarded with the Cerberus shaking its head viciously before skipping backwards with a chunk of mottled flesh hanging from its muzzle.

"What on earth is a Cerberus doing in a school!?" Hermione asked weakly.

Cerberus... Hagrid had a Cerberus didn't he? What was it's name?

Fufu? Fifi? Fluffy? Yes, Fluffy sounded about right.

What was Fluffy doing in the forbidden corridor?

With an ear shattering roar the creature lunged towards Fluffy, both long arms moving awkwardly together as it came forward in some sort of a fast paced attack.

But Fluffy was quicker.

With a snarl Fluffy moved forward and sunk his fangs into the creatures jugular and tore.

Blood spurted from the wound and covered the hallway, Fluffy and themselves in the hot crimson liquid as the creature fell with a thundering crash.

Well, no help was here yet and neither were the stairs. But this was fluffy. What had Hagrid said about Fluffy? Think Harry, think!

'Just play a bit of music and he falls straight asleep.'

He didn't have an instrument but... Singing. Or at least humming, just enough to calm him down.

Humming a random tune Harry stood on shaky legs, ignoring for the moment Neville's hands scrabbling at him to keep him down and Hermione's hissed 'what are you doing!?' as he slowly edged his way forward, still humming.

The fierce wildness seemed to be draining from the six massive eyes of the Cerberus as they took him in. Several agonizing moments later Fluffy blinked.

With a whine that sounded far too submissive for such a great beast who was fresh from battle Fluffy sank to the floor.

Like this, with his muzzle pressed to the ground, the top of Fluffy's head still stood taller than Harry's own.

Slowly his humming got softer until, with one final echoing note, the hallway fell silent.

"Hey there Fluffy," Harry crooned softly, making sure to never break the eye contact he held, "Thank you for helping us. My name is Harry, I'm friends with Hagrid. Do you understand?"

With another soft whimper Fluffy moved so that his three heads were facing Harry and he licked with the tips of each of his three tongues.

"I knew you would, you did very well. I'll be sure to have Hagrid give you a nice big treat!" Harry giggled.

Reaching the top of the staircase Severus Snape and the other teachers halted in horror.

Before them was a scene from a nightmare, the hallway was covered in blood and the ravaged corpse of a mountain troll lay of to one side.

Directly before them however stood four of their youngest students, all of them covered in blood and only one of them standing with a giant Cerberus facing them with a snarl.

"Shh," Potter crooned at the beast with a soft hum as one of the massive heads turned back to look at him, "It's okay Fluffy. These are the Professors, they're here to help us. It's okay."

What exactly was going on here?

"It's okay Professors," Potter said with a small smile as he pat the beasts muzzle, "Fluffy helped us with that thing. He won't hurt us."

"Potter, perhaps it would be best if you backed away from the Cerberus?" Minerva asked with a small quiver in her voice.

"Hey Fluffy?" Harry said with a nervous glance at the professors, "Do you mind going back in your room? The Professors are going to take care of things now and I know you want to get some sleep before your treat right?"

"Potter that creature cannot-"

With a soft whine and a gentle lick at Potters side the beast moved over and through the door which Potter then closed behind it.

"What?"

"Fluffy helped us, he wouldn't hurt us, you just need to know how to handle him. It's lucky though, if it weren't for Fluffy that thing would have gotten us and if it wasn't Fluffy then Fluffy would have gotten us," Harry began to babble.

"I believe he's going into shock," Filius murmured from behind him before he moved forward and started gathering the four, obviously in shock, first years together.

"Potter, Longbottom, Granger and Weasley," Severus called out suddenly and found every eye in the hall focused on him. Oh, if they weren't in shock before they certainly would be. "Twenty points. Each."

"Well then, now I know that these poor children are in shock," Filius said with a smirk as he began to guide them towards the stairwell. "Come on you lot, let's get you to Poppy. I believe that you two will track down Pomona and let her know what happened?" With that Filius shepherded the four children away.

As they watched the small procession Minerva came up beside him with a smirk planted firmly on her lips and a single sentence that caused Severus to groan.

"You like him."

That night they were forced to spend the night in the infirmary. Not that they minded of course. Madame Pomfrey was of the firm belief that the only treatment they needed were a few large mugs of rich hot chocolate and enough sweets to send someone into a coma.

Not that she condoned it of course. She had no idea what so ever that the typical mush provided to her patients had been switched with an assortment of sweets. Of course not.

No, the only thing she was aware of that night was how truly grateful she was to Hagrid's pets and the fact that there were four young children who were still able to laugh.

Yes, things would work out for these four, she was sure of it.