Chapter 17: Midnight Duel

When I got to the common room, Pansy jumped at me happily, not for me, but for her. She couldn't wait, she could finally get her revenge.

"Hey Weasley? It seems that someone lost the bet, do you think we should do it now or should I consider letting you go to your last supper in the great hall" she told me gloating at my supposed misfortune.

"In case you didn't notice, you still haven't won the bet"

"Don't play Weasley, you started this bet and promised not to back down, you bet Potter got the rememberer and he did, but you also bet that if they were caught, Potter would be fine and you lost. If you hadn't, maybe you would have won, but it's not like that, you can't escape right now like a coward"

"I'm not running away, but if you haven't noticed, we don't know yet if Potter is being punished or rewarded."

"Don't try to use this method to escape, Potter was clearly dragged by Professor McGonagall to his tragic fate, I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow he is sent back to the Muggle world, and even if he wasn't, it would be impossible to be rewarded for what he did, or What are you waiting for? What do they give the points for flying without permission?"

"That I am not escaping, if Potter is really punished I will accept my fate, but if not, I will not let you do what you want with me for nothing, when there is proof of Potter's fate, then we will be able to know who won and who lost"

"Fine" She snorted "but you're only delaying the inevitable, you won't be able to stop me from getting my due, when I find out that Potter was expelled I'm going to make sure you squirm" she said furiously as she went to her room.

"Why don't you seem worried? Even if you delayed it a bit, it's very likely that it will only make her less reserved when she goes to cast the spells on you, I don't think you can hide or escape without leaving Hogwarts" asked Tracey Davis, who accompanied us in silence with her roommates.

"I didn't need to hide, I know I won't lose"

"How do you know?" The girl asked confused for my assurance.

"Male intuition" I said before going to my room to get ready to go out.

It was already dinner time and I was at the Ravenclaw table again, but I kept seeing the table of lions. Potter was at the Gryffindor table talking to Ron, he didn't look apathetic or desperate, rather a little excited, it was clear that if he became the Seeker of the Quidditch team.

In one of those looks that I gave, I could see how Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle approached Harry and argued... Right, I think there was a duel between them in the original story where Malfoy did not appear and they ended up meeting the three-headed dog , I almost forgot about a very important event, but... Should I try to interrupt it? I don't think there's anything to be gained from that, it's better that things take their course and take advantage of the future knowledge that I have.

I could see how Malfoy left the table, it seems that the duel is over. I could also see that while Harry was talking to my brother, Hermione was walking towards them, and from the way she was moving she wasn't happy.

They finished talking to each other and Hermione turned around, and curiously, she didn't go back to her place, but she came towards me. As she approached the Ravenclaw table, I could see how she had a scowl on her face and her fists clenched.

"Red?" She called me angry, although she was not with me, luckily.

"What's up Hermione? I present to you, these are the Ravenclaw students, Ravenclaw students, this is Hermione"

"Hello" She greets the eagles "Red, can I talk to you about something?"

"Okay, see you" greet the people with whom I was talking.

After that, I separated with her in one of the walls of the great dining room. She looked bitter, but in the next second she looked at me and changed to a look of concern.

"Is everything okay? I mean, with the bet."

"Hahaha, I haven't lost the bet yet, you didn't see Potter at your table without any difference, it doesn't look like he was punished"

"It's true, it seems like he doesn't take anything seriously, I don't know what sanction he was given, but now he's going to…" She stopped then to look at me uncertainly.

"What's wrong, are you hiding something from me?"

"It's not just… I don't know if I should say it" she was unsure for a moment "But I need to tell someone, Harry and Ron are going to duel in the middle of the night and if they get caught they're going to cause more trouble. I don't know how they dare break the rules again after what happened this afternoon."

"It's just that they're idiots. They don't have the capacity to have a decent duel, they will probably end up fist fighting until both sides end up crying. Also, I don't know why they think Malfoy will go, I'm almost sure he will be absent just to get caught "

"Yeah, I don't know why they don't think... wait, how did you know it was Malfoy? I didn't tell you who I was going to duel with."

"Who else would want to duel Potter and my brother when they don't even know how to master the most basic spells, plus I've been watching them from the Ravenclaw table, especially you, your back is so beautiful, you know, since flying class I can't stop looking at her" I said as I began to invade her personal space.

"Get away" She pushed me back angrily "that you can't be serious with you? And I still can't forgive you for the flying class, I know you did it on purpose, I will never ride a broom with you again"

"Don't tell me that. What if you were falling from a great height and the only way to survive is to ride the broom with me?"

"Then I'd rather you let me fall" she said, crossing her arms.

"Come on, you know I couldn't do that, I'd catch you even if you didn't want to" I told her as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug.

"Let go of me now" she said abruptly freeing herself from my hands "At least you can have a limit, I won't be able to stand you if you continue like this"

"Hermione, all my childhood I spent having the expressiveness and emotions of a stone, there was only one person with whom I could interact almost normally. Now I am able to be more emotional than before and bothering you is part of it, you will not take it from me the little I have right now, right?" Time to resort to pity and compassion.

"Just... try to control yourself a little, will you? At least stop coming closer and hugging me so much, it's awkward" she said this last part somewhat embarrassed.

"I'll try"

"Now back to our problem. What are we going to do about Harry and Ron?"

"You're wrong about that sentence, it's not 'our problem', Harry and Ron seem prone to causing trouble, so it's best to stay away from it. It has nothing to do with you, if you don't want to, stay out, or maybe?" that you actually want to go see their duel?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

"NO, of course not, that's against the rules, although it may seem very interesting, I'm not going to go out in the middle of the night to see it and get caught by some teacher"

"Possibly it would be Filch, but since you have it clear, I don't see that there is any problem"

"But still, we have to stop them. I don't mind if they get into trouble, but if they lose points or cause trouble for the rest of us, all the efforts I've put in so far will be in vain."

"We could give them a sleeping potion or break some bones so they're in the hospital wing and can't attend the duel, but other than that, I can't think of anything. I'm not in Gryffindor and so I couldn't stop them before they do"

"You couldn't tell him something, he's your brother, or ask your older brother, the prefect"

"Ron will not listen to me even if it saves his life, and if we bring Percy into this it will make things more complicated for you. I may be able to stop him, but they will hate you and you will be marked as a snitch. What they are going to do is reckless and brave, what they are going to do is in line with the ideals of their house, but if you accuse them the others will stay away from you because they will believe that you are not trustworthy and you will spend the rest of your stay at Hogwarts away from all those live with you. It's not that it bothers me that you don't have other friends in Gryffindor, they miss out, if I could, I'd bring you with me, but I don't have a way to do that at the moment, so it's not convenient to do something like that now" I explained "the only thing you could do is try to stop them, but like I said, I can't"

"But I do"

"It will be difficult for you, those empty heads will not listen to you and I know you will not use force, but if you try, keep in mind that they do not matter, but you, don't get dragged"

"Okay, thanks for the advice" she said somewhat dejectedly, seeing that she didn't find another solution than the one she had previously thought of.

"Okay, rest, and I don't want to find out that you went out at night to watch the duel. If you do, you'll disappoint me a lot because you lied to me" I told her, emphasizing the last part.

After that, I left. Why did I say that last one? Because she's probably going to be stuck outside with that pair of jerks, and then I'll have another excuse to pick on her. Yes, I know, I am malevolent.

For my part, I have nothing to do in his adventure, I don't see it necessary. Tonight I'll still have my clone going to the room for all the requirements, maybe I'll even run into them.

-Evening-

Inside one of the Gryffindor dorms at 11:30, a couple of boys were still not asleep.

"Half past eleven" murmured one of them "We better go now"

Both boys got up quietly so as not to wake their sleeping companions. Took their robes and wands, dressed, and left the room down a spiral staircase to reach the common room of their dormitory.

It was all quite dark, with a few embers in the fireplace, when they came down from their room. They were heading towards the exit door of the common room on their tiptoes to avoid alerting anyone, but they were stopped by a voice that came from one of the armchairs in the room.

"I can't believe they're actually going to do this" Said a girl dressed in a pink robe.

"Damn, it's you" complained the redheaded boy "stay out of this and go to your bed"

"I will only do it if you do it too" said the girl

"Why do you have to meddle so much? Just go away, come on Ron"

"Why can't you be a little like your brother and stop being so stupid?"

"You don't know anything," Ron said angrily as he dragged Harry out of the common room.

"Of course I know. You two don't care about anything but yourselves, Harry already made a mistake today and now you're breaking the rules again, you don't care about Gryffindor and you're going to end up losing and all the points I'm striving for. It's already hard for me to compete with your brother to have a chance to win the house cup, even when he doesn't do everything he can, but you guys are going to spoil everything" she claims as I followed them.

"And why don't you go complain to him and leave us alone?" he said sarcastically.

"He's right, there's no way to make them see reason. Remember it was your fault when you're brought back on the train tomorrow" the girl said angrily not trying to stop them anymore.

She wasn't satisfied with the situation, but what else could she do? Right now, she wished her friend was here to stop them. But those emotions quickly changed when she turned around to notice that the painting hiding the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was missing the fat lady responsible for opening the door.

It took a few seconds for her brain to realize that the fat lady was out on a night walk, and now she had no way to get back to her bedroom. She screamed inside herself why she was dumb enough to follow them outside only to end up powerless. She tried to re-enter quickly, she went to the painting and tried to pull it, but it was useless, her last hope was gone.

"And now, what am I going to do?" She asked herself, a little desperate and anxious.

"That's your problem" said the red-haired boy gloating over the bad luck of the nosy girl and then told his friend "Let's go or we'll be late"

"I'm coming with you" she said suddenly, seeing how the children turned to leave.

"No, you will not"

"You don't think I'm going to stay here, waiting for Filch to catch me? If I don't go with you, I'm going to find some teacher to tell him that you went out at night. So I'll accompany you if you don't want everyone to know, but even so, if they find us three, I will tell the truth and tell them that I was trying to stop them, so it will be better if nobody finds us" The girl threatened them.

"How can you be so cheeky?" The red-haired boy said.

"I think I learned from your brother"

"Huussh, right now I'm starting to hate you more than him"

"We don't have time Ron, just let her come" Harry said to his friend as he tugged at their clothes to get them moving, but before they could leave they heard a noise that left everyone frozen.

To one side someone got up from the ground, it was Neville who seemed to have just gotten up. He was curled up on the floor half-asleep, but he had gotten up hearing them argue, when he saw them he was overjoyed.

"Thank Merlín, you found me! I've been here for hours. I couldn't remember the password to get in"

"The password is 'Pig's snout' but it doesn't matter now, the fat lady isn't here so we can't get in" Hermione replied to the boy's disappointment.

"We have to go now, Neville" Harry told him.

"Don't leave me here alone again" moaned the frightened boy "The bloody baron has already passed twice"

"Damn, Harry, we're going to be late," Ron said after glancing at his watch and then looking at Hermione and Neville with angry eyes.

When Harry heard that, he conducted Ron into the trophy room, followed by Hermione and Neville.

"If we get caught because of you, I won't rest until I learn that Demon Curse Quirrell told us about and use it against you," Ron grumbled, looking at the two new companions following them.

But Hermione didn't hear him, at this moment she wasn't paying attention to him, since she was thinking about something.

'If Red finds out I went out with them in the middle of the night he will never stop bothering me' she worried, knowing how her friend was and how much he would take advantage of her situation to make fun of her.

"If your brother finds out about this, I'll make life impossible for both of you"

"You are already doing it"

After a trip that turned out to be quite easy, without encountering any problems or anything to stop them, they arrived at the trophy room.

They waited for a while, but no one had come, there was no sign of Malfoy and everyone was tense about the situation not knowing if they would be caught.

"Are you sure it's here??" Hermione asked, but then she thought of her talk with Red today after dinner.

"He's running late, maybe he chickened out," Ron whispered.

"He didn't chicken out, he wasn't planning on coming. Red told me today that he probably didn't come and he was just doing it to get us in trouble" she said, frustrated that she didn't remember earlier.

With what she said they all changed their faces, if that was true, then all this was happening for nothing, it was likely that they would get caught and it was all because of Malfoy. Everyone was about to curse him out loud for his ruse, but at that moment, there was a noise outside the room.

It was Filch looking for them with Mrs. Norris. When they heard it, they all ran away to avoid being caught. While fleeing, Neville tripped and ended up grabbing Ron, causing them to collide with one of the armors on the road, generating a loud noise that could have alerted the entire castle to their location.

"Run" Hermione yelled, terrified that she would be caught along with the others.

After running through the corridors and through some secret passages, they arrived near the enchanting classroom.

"I think we lost them" Potter said, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily.

They all took some time to rest, as they were very agitated from the race they made to escape from Filch and Mrs. Norris. Now everyone was sure that it was all an evil plan by Malfoy to get caught, if not, why would Filch go straight to the trophy room looking for someone? When they had regained their composure they headed back towards Gryffindor tower, but not long after they started walking they ran into another problem.

It was Peeves, who was singing with joy as they went out at night to wander the castle. They tried to ask him to stop, but it only caused him to start singing louder and shouting to get attention.

They had no choice but to escape again. They sprinted again to get away from Peeves and whoever he might have attracted with his screams, but they couldn't go much further after facing a locked door.

"Come on, open it," Ron tried to pull the handle, but he couldn't open it. "We're done," he groaned as he heard Filch's footsteps approaching.

"Stand back," Hermione told him, pulling Ron away from the front door as she took Harry's wand and recited "Alohomora."

The door lock clicked and the door opened. They all ran inside and closed the door to stand on the other side listening. They could hear how Filch argued with Peeves, with the character of the poltergeist it was very difficult for him to get answers the more he wanted them.

When Filch finished leaving, they all relaxed a bit, but Harry felt uncomfortable because Neville was constantly tugging at his clothes. He wanted to turn around to yell at him to stop, but the moment he saw behind him, he understood why he was doing it, and so did everyone else. There was a huge and monstrous dog with three heads that was staring at them. It was for a second that everything was silent before the group of children ran in terror from the monster that was in the forbidden area of ​​the third floor.

They ran without stopping for a long stretch until Harry tripped and fell to the ground in one of the corridors. When they all saw that the dog was not behind them, they stopped to help Harry up and take a short rest.

"What's that monster doing inside the school?" Ron gasped, standing next to a pale Neville, who seemed on the verge of fainting.

"Is everyone blind?" She said angrily "Didn't you see what it was standing on"

"The floor?" Harry suggested, "I didn't look at his paws, I was too busy looking at his teeth.

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor, It's obviously guarding something"

"I don't care what I was…" Ron was about to say, but he fell silent as his and everyone else's eyes saw a cat coming towards them.

"This is Mrs. Norris" exclaimed Hermione.

"Oh no, she's going to tip Filch off," Harry said.

When they saw that Mrs. Norris was about to reach them and scream to get her master's attention, they saw how the cat seemed to bristle and jump up and then run away as fast as possible. Everyone was taken aback by the attitude of the cat that seemed afraid of them.

"Mrs. Norris seemed... scared?" Ron asked.

"She looked like us when we saw the three-headed dog, but why did she run away in the opposite direction from us? Is she scared of us?"

"I don't think it's us, she was never afraid of any student as far as I know," Hermione replied.

"S-So w-w-what are she f-afraid of?" Neville stammered.

"To me" a voice was heard behind the children.

They all turned around quickly to see how a boy with red hair and eyes had appeared behind them, who hadn't been there before. When Neville turned around being the closest he saw him and passed out in the same instant. The boy watched as Neville slumped to the ground and said.

"I'm sorry about that"

"Red!" Hermione jumped, excited and worried.

"What are you doing here?" Ron complained.

"Look who we have here, the 'I'm not going to do that, it's against the rules' lady... and the others"

"It's not what you think…" Hermione said quickly, trying to explain herself, but he didn't give her a chance.

"You don't have to give me excuses, I'm not against you doing these things, although I would rather you didn't lie to me and just tell me if you want to go out with the pair of idiots and Neville. I wouldn't have stopped you, who am I to control what You just... you disappointed me, I thought you trusted me..." The red-eyed boy had a depressed face when he said these words, although inside he was actually laughing.

"Who are you calling idiots," Harry and Ron complained.

"No, but I..." The girl grew impatient.

Hermione couldn't clearly think of a way for her friend to believe her that she wasn't going to go with them voluntarily. If she wasn't so displaced by the suddenness of her appearance and the whole affair tonight, she might realize that her friend was cheating on her. Not knowing what to do, the only thing she could think of was to divert the subject.

"Wait... what are you doing here too? You're going out at this time of night? you have no reason to be here" the girl gave a judging look. Even if it was by chance, she had a reason to go out outside the allowed hours, but her friend didn't. Now that she had found something, she intentionally acted very unhappy in order to get her friend to not focus on her mistakes. She was trying to make him feel bad about himself to take advantage of it and get rid of him, for a moment she felt very clever in making this move.

"I'm earning my bread, I go out almost every night" he said without much encouragement to explain.

"What are you doing, what?" Asked the girl somewhat confused, not expecting that answer

"I work to get some money, if not, how do you think I buy what I need? We don't all have family wealth to support ourselves with" he said, causing Ron to be a little indignant too, but he was more confused than his brother was by the nights.

"What are you doing?" the other children asked.

"That doesn't matter to them, you should go to your bedroom before someone catches you" the boy said to Hermione "Come on, my presence will drive away Mrs. Norris and therefore Filch"

When they saw the boy start to walk towards Gryffindor tower they all followed him, they were too tired to argue right now, plus Ron and Harry who had to drag Neville along.

As they walked, Hermione tried to ask Red several questions, but he refused to answer her, causing her to give up on her and start concentrating on the other two boys behind her.

"I hope you are satisfied. They could have killed us, or worse, expelled" she complained about everything she had to suffer because of the two of them.

"First, how could they have died? And second, how could that be better than being expelled?" Red asked without stopping or changing his expression, since he knew what they were talking about.

"That's none of your business" his brother complained.

"Nothing you should care about, just don't ask," Harry continued, trying to keep things from escalating and no one else finding out.

"Okay, I don't care what they do. But as for you" he said giving the girl a look "I don't want to know that you prefer death to expulsion. Even if they expel you we would find a way, but if you died it would be hard to bring you back" he said before stopping in front of a portrait of a Fat lady.

"We're finally here" Ron said relieved.

"Yeah, we got away from Filch," Harry sighed, putting Neville down.

"Where have you been?" The Fat Lady in the painting asked when she saw several tired and sweaty students out of bed late at night.

"Never mind… 'Pig's snout, pig's snout'" Harry panted and the portrait moved to let them pass.

"Go to sleep and rest" Red said to Hermione "You too"

"Yes, I'm going to bed" Hermione said weakly "You..."

Hermione was about to say goodbye to her friend and try to explain one last time that she didn't really want to go out tonight, but she didn't have time. Red had cast a spell before her eyes that made him almost invisible and he left very quickly leaving the girl unable to say anything to her. She just sighs as she enters the common room so she can get ready to go to sleep, followed by the two children who are dragging a third.

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This chapter arrived later than planned, since on Wednesday I had a tooth removed and I had taken the day.

There is also that the problem with the other tooth is more complicated than it seems. In the worst case they would have to remove a third of my jaw, but that will not hinder my hands, so I will be able to continue writing without problems, I hope...

I'm not saying this to win pity, just so you know that if at any time I'm absent for a week or more without warning, it's not that I'm leaving this Fanfic. In any case, I will try to notify you beforehand, but if I cannot, please know that it is not something that was in my power.

And if somewhere you hear about the new superhero known as 'a third jaw of steel' know that it would not be me, I would not use that name. (This last paragraph is a joke for those who did not understand it)