Chapter 25

After dinner that evening, the four of them were in the Common Room, spread nervously apart from each other.

Harry sat near the window, and no one bothered him anyway as he had lost One-Hundred points for Gryffindor. He didn't exactly care, though, very nervous already for his new adventure.

He looked over to see Hermione was looking over some books. Lucifer was eating something beside her, no one knows what.

Hermione wanted to see what he was putting in her mouth from time to time, but it tasted good and crunchy to her.

So, she didn't ask further and just enjoyed his offerings like a good girl.

But, Harry was going insane, he walked over towards them, "We'd better put the Cloak on here, and make sure it does indeed cover all four of us. If Filch spots one of our feet walking around on its own-" he was cut off by someone else talking.

"What are you doing?" The voice said from a corner of the room. Ron noticed it immediately to be Neville's voice.

Neville spun his chair around while stroking the back of his toad, Trevor. Lucifer struggled to hide his snorts of laughter at seeing him try to pull off the evil mastermind pose in his pyjamas, "Nothing, Longbottom...." But, Hermione didn't look convinced, and raised her eyebrows at him, "It's really nothing...."

"You're going out again," he said, hitting the nail on the head.

Harry glanced at the Grandfather clock by the door and saw they were wasting time.

It also caused Lucifer to glance towards Hermione with some expectations, behind his eyes.

"....." Hermione's face instantly became serious, then stared at this intruder, "We're not going out Neville.....So, just go back to your bed?" She asked very politely.

"You can't go out," But, Neville didn't waver at Hermione's attack, "y-y-you'll be c-c-caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble!" he began to sound a little bit like Quirrell.

"You don't understand, Neville, this is important," Harry said, trying to get him to see his way of thinking.

It looked as though, to Lucifer at least, Neville had steeled himself to do something desperate, "I won't let you do it!" He ran to stand in front of the portrait hole, "I'll... I-I'll fight you!"

Ron was clearly frustrated with him, "Neville! Move out of the way, don't be stupid!"

"I'm not stupid!" But, Neville really wanted to gain 10 points from Dumbledore, then shouted the top of his lungs too, "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the ones who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not us, you idiot!" Ron moved forward to try and reason with him more clearly, but Neville took this as an invitation of trying to start a fight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" Neville raised his fists in anticipation."I'm ready!"

Lucifer nudged Hermione's arm and whispered for her to do something, the girl hurriedly stepped forward, then raised her wand.

"I am sorry for this Neville, Petrificus totalus" Hermione casted one of her favourites, not wanting to lose even a single chance of impressing Lucifer, with her perfect skills.

Neville locked into place, arms going to his sides and he stood up straight, falling forward a moment later, "Let's go," Harry said, taking the opportunity to keep moving.

"I wonder if he is hanging out with Abbott too much...." Lucifer muttered his thoughts out loud, when he saw Neville being different from usual.

"Abbott.... don't tell me, you are still hanging out with that girl?!" It was Hermione, who pulled Lucifer's right arm, then started her interrogation, when she heard, another girl's name coming out of his mouth, eyes seemed to have narrowed dangerously, without hurting them too much.

She still hadn't forgotten what inappropriate things he was doing in the History exam.

But Lucifer who felt like his brain was going to be drilled, and stalked into, chose wisely to remain vague, "Uh.... definitely not from past thre-"

"Grrrr...." Hermione's strong gaze really hurts, she was ready to beat all her opponents up, and charge!

"I d-definitely won't from now on....."

"...Y-you better keep your promise.....for both of your sakes....."

After such a terrible declaration was made by the bushy-haired girl, she  really thought about marking him, to leave a permanent bite into Lucifer's neck.

"....." Harry was also really scared to interrupt between these two, but there are other important things like stealing Philosopher's stone, "My c-cloak....you need to put this on, remember?"

Albeit reluctantly, when Lucifer started to talk about how amazing her spell on Neville was, Hermione decided to just get this over with, put the Cloak over, until she was able to learn how to make herself become invisible perfectly... it's really scary to leave her bedroom at night.

'I was almost caught by a Prefect one night!' But learning such advanced magic, Hermione doesn't think, she would be able to perfect it, until her Fifth year at least.

But, for now.....she's going to practice it over, and over again.... Professor Flitwick was really impressed with her, so he wouldn't mind if Hermione asked to learn something new, right?

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They walked towards the Third Floor where Fluffy resided, coming across Mrs. Norris, "Oh, let's kick her, just this once?" Ron begged.

"Yeah, that pest is the reason I got detention!" Lucifer said, while glaring angrily at this fat cat.

Ron's face seemed to have brightened up, directly went towards his target, and tried to kick her....while, Hermione was busy loudly whispering to not do it.

Only, they run into Peeves, who was busy loosening the carpets so that people would trip over them, "Who's there?" He asked suddenly, looking in their direction.

Obviously he couldn't see them, but if he flew over to them, Peeves'd feel them in a heartbeat, "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" He rose into the air and squinted, trying to see where they were.

"Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen!" He was just ready to yell  Filch's name, again....

For Lucifer the only way to get out of this situation, is to use exorcism on Peeves, but it was Harry, who suddenly opened his mouth, "Peeves," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairwell, "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, sir," he said greasily, "My mistake, my mistake, I didn't see you - of course I-I didn't, you're invisible..."

"I have business here tonight, Peeves," Harry's voice croaked out, "Stay away from this place tonight!"

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," Peeves rose into the air a bit, "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you!" He scurried off in a haste.

"Absolutely brilliant, mate," Ron whispered.

They hurried to the door just outside of Fluffy's room. The door was already ajar, "Well, there you have it... Snape's already been here..."

Just before they opened the door, Harry turned to them, but Lucifer was getting annoyed, "Just open the damn thing!"

"No, don't Harry! Let's just go back!" Indeed, Hermione felt like, she was being cheated on.

"What kind of mate would I be if I just left you to face off against Snape without me? Of course I'm going down that trapdoor with you!" But, Ron, his best friend was ready to spill blood.

While, Hermione was glaring at Lucifer's smiling face, this boy obviously fooled her into coming with him, but in reality, she was just having a very bad feeling, and wanted to drag her Lucifer away from this restricted place.

But, Harry smiled at all three of them and pushed into the room, which got the attention of Fluffy, all three of his heads, as they began to sniff like mad in their direction.

So, Harry pulled out a flute, which Lucifer didn't know he had and began to play.

It wasn't any sort of tune that sounded good, but Fluffy's eyes began to droop all the same, that was what mattered.

When Fluffy collided with the ground in a grand impact, the three not playing an instrument moved one of Fluffy's paws that had unfortunately landed on the trapdoor.

Lucifer opened it and saw no way to climb down, "We have to jump in... I'll go first. Weasely or Hermione, can go second and third, decide very quickly. Potter, jump in after the second of them do, okay?" They all nodded and he looked back down into the pitch black hole, "Geronimo," then he jumped down and fell for a little while, landing on something soft.

"It's okay to commit suicide!" Lucifer hollered back up to them.

"..." Ron, who was just thinking about going second, "Ugh! Ronald, just die already!" Hermione was getting irritated, when she realised this red-haired, didn't seem to move at all.

'Daddy must be waiting?!'

"N-no, don't push me, wait! Aaahhh!"

Ron began to get tangled in something that wrapped around his appendages, similar things were happening with both Lucifer and Hermione, but they recognized it immediately, "Harry, stop moving!" she said to the boy, who came in last.

"Why? Don't you see this thing trying to wrap around us and kill us!?" But, it's Ron, who replied with panic in his voice.

"It's Devil's Snare, and won't hurt you if you just stop moving," Lucifer hissed at him.

"Oh, I'm so glad to know the name of the bloody thing about to kill us!" Ron yelled as the plant wrapped around his midsection tightly, completely ignoring what he just said.

Lucifer and Hermione both stopped struggling and were pulled underneath the Devil's Snare, much to Ron's and Harry's horror, "Just stop moving, you idiots!" Hermione yelled up at them.

Harry decided it was worth a shot, if he could still hear them down below, then stopped moving and appeared down below the plant as well, "Why on earth did you bring him with us, Harry?!" Hermione asked as Ron only yelled and squirmed more voraciously.

Harry also didn't know why?

"We could just leave him there, right?" Lucifer offered a solution to both of their problems, and Hermione was also eager to get rid of Ron.

But, Harry just pleaded with them to do something, which made Hermione to make a blank face, and used the spell, which she used to conjure her blue flames back in November.

The plant receded and dropped Ron down to the floor, "Oh, blimey, it's a good thing we didn't panic."

"You did not just say that... I ought to slap you for not paying attention in class!" Hermione was full-on growling at the red-head.

"Let's go, Snape could already be at the Stone!" Harry said urgently, getting them all to move through to the next room.

The only door led to a long, winding hallway that led farther down.

The gentle dripping of water onto stone could be heard aside from their footsteps.

"Can you hear something?" Ron asked all of a sudden, and then another sound came into range.

A soft rustling and clinking was coming from somewhere ahead of them, "Maybe it's another ghost?" Hermione asked, while being darn near exasperated, this adventure is just ridiculous in her opinion.

"I don't think so... it sounds like wings to me..." Harry said, seeming to recognize the sound.

"Well, light's ahead of us, and....there is also something moving in the next room," Lucifer said, while doing his best to stare at even further, almost crossing human boundaries.

When they got to the room at the end of the passageway, they saw a brilliantly lit chamber.

The other things they readily saw were hundreds of small, jewel-bright birds flapping and fluttering in the air above them.

1 Extra Chapter - 200 Power Stone's!

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