Chapter 36:

Rodrick paced away from the great hall, more ran away actually, it took him a few moments before he realized he was being followed. Turning around he saw blonde hair. Luna. The person who may or may not have just made him lose his friends... Rodrick sighed.

"I am sorry..." the blonde spoke, "I didn't know it was supposed to be secret..."

Rodrick chuckled despite himself, "I wouldn't be hiding my face if it wasn't,"

The girl flinched anyway, but before she could say anything, Rodrick shook his head and told her it was alright.

"It's not your fault, don't worry."

"Your friend didn't look too happy," Luna remarked, looking to the floor.

Rodrick laughed, "No I don't think she was," he put his hand on the girl's shoulder, "It'll be fine, I am hard to hate," he joked.

Luna had shaken her head before she moved up to his side.

"Where were you going?" she questioned.

Rodrick had a thoughtful look on his face, "Deten-" he started before he remembered why he'd left so quickly.

"Crap..." he added on before he started running towards the first floor.

Luna surprised at the sudden action sprinted along herself, albeit slower.

Coming up to a staircase, Rodrick crashed into someone else, both of them falling to the floor.

"Watch were your go-" The boy snarled before he recognized Rodrick. "Ah hello," Nott spoke.

The two boys got up quickly, Rodrick nodded his head before he sprinted past the boy.

"Hey, Lockhart's office isn't that way," Nott yelled after the fleeing boy.

Rodrick didn't reply; Nott turned to see a blonde girl run in the same direction.

He stood there for a few seconds before he shrugged and chased after the other two.

Rodrick reached the first-floor corner; he was about to move on ahead before he saw his two companions, 'Ah right... forgot about them...'

"Where are we running exactly?" Nott asked.

"I have no idea," Luna remarked dreamily.

Nott raised an eyebrow at the girl, "You chased him for no reason then..."

Luna turned her eyes to the Slytherin before giving him a look regarding himself.

Nott snorted when he realized her meaning. They both turned their gaze to see Rodrick's pale face; he was staring ahead towards the corridor.

"Are you ok?" Luna asked. Rodrick didn't respond.

Both Nott and Lovegood walked up towards the boy and turned around the corner to get a look at the corridor themselves.

"What... is that?" Nott questioned, he turned to see Luna's surprised face. They were staring at something down towards the middle; it was in midair being held by a rope.

Rodrick was the first to move towards it; the two followed him although Luna slowed down a lot more.

A quarter of the way in, they saw three other heads pop up on the other side of the hallway, "Potter," Nott snarled to himself. He had almost slipped on the puddle of water before the three decided to tread with more care.

Rodrick's group reached the hanging object first.

No one said a word, the object hanging from the rope was a cat, Filch's cat to be exact. On the wall, something was written in blood.

He was the first to move towards the cat; it was frozen, completely still, he attempted to move one of its hand but found it stuck in place. He sighed in relief and moved his hand away from the cat. He looked at the puddle on the floor and assumed the cat had seen its eyes there.

"What did you do?" Questioned someone, Rodrick turned to see Harry Potter, he'd come closer as well.

Rodrick eyed him warily before he told them it wouldn't do anyone any favours been caught here. "Best get a teacher." He added on.

Luna had a frightened look on her face, "Is she?" She was about to ask, a slight quiver in her voice before Rodrick shook his head quickly. He could see some relief return to her face.

"Enemies of the heir, beware," Nott started reading out the second part of the writing on the wall, his lips twitching upwards slightly.

Rodrick moved away from the cat; Harry Potter did the same.

Ron was about to speak before herds of footsteps were heard coming from every direction. Rodrick could see Malfoy, slowly coming over, ahead of the others in his direction. His eyes lit up when he saw the hanging cat; he was about to comment on the writing before he saw Nott and Rodrick standing far to close compared to Potter.

Rodrick shook his head slightly.

Silence reigned over the hallway, Rodrick scanned the crowds of students and relaxed when he caught Ginny's face among them, she didn't die it seemed... So why did he see her in his vision? He found Tracey and Blaise amongst the crowd but was slightly put out not to see Daphne.

Filch's voice broke the silence; he had marched through the crowd before he fell to his knees and started shrieking. Surprisingly to Rodrick, the man blamed Harry Potter, even though he was standing closer to the bloody thing.

"You! You murdered my cat! His eyes were popping out, "You've kille-" He was about to finish. As much as Rodrick enjoyed the sight on Ron's freaked out face. He spoke up.

"She isn't dead," his voice rang over the shrieking caretakers.

Black beady eyes turned to Rodrick in that instant.

"What did you say!?" he demanded. Before pointing towards the cat, "Look at her! What do yo-" he was about to finish before the headmaster's voice stopped him.

"Argus!"

Heads quickly turned to the old wizard. Rodrick could see the man eyeing the cat before turning his gaze over between himself and Harry. 'I should've kept my mouth shut...'

He detached the cat and called out for the six students to follow him. He could see regret go over Nott's face; the boy most likely had considered falling in with the mass of students to hide. Luna was staring at the cat whimsically. It was then Lockhart showed up, he muttered something about his office been upstairs.

Rodrick turned to Nott, "I thought you said his office wasn't this way!" he hissed at the boy. Nott raised an eyebrow before asking him if he actually would've gone to the detention or not. A twinkle appeared in Rodrick's before he smiled slightly and whispered back. "We were on our way there remember?"

Nott looked slightly confused before he understood and a small smirk took over his face.

Luna was about to object, but a glare from both Slytherins had her chuckling instead, they looked like such vulnerable snakes.

The six students, Headmaster, Lockhart, Professor McGonagall and Snape, filtered into a darkened office. Rodrick's nose twitched when he saw the number of photos of the defence professor on the walls. Turning to Nott, he saw a similar expression. Luna laughed as one of the photos tried to hide away, it was still working on its hair.

Snape eyed them warily but said nothing.

Dumbledore put the cat down on the desk before he began to examine it.

Rodrick had been planning to stay quiet until Lockhart started giving out suggestions.

A small grin appeared on his face.

"It was the Transmorgrifian torture curse that killed her! I have seen it many times." The man spoke with confidence. Rodrick could see Filch eye him with both a distasteful and hopeful look.

Rodrick opened his mouth at that, "But sir, she's not dead."

That quickly got everyone's attention although Dumbledore was still inspecting the cat, Snape raised an eyebrow at him but still refused to speak.

Lockhart turned to him slightly annoyed, "I know that particular curse, I-" but once again he was cut off.

Rodrick shook his head, "I am telling you she's still alive, she's only been-"

"Now listen here the cat i-" Gilderoy cut him off and went off on a rant about the times he'd seen the curse happen.

Rodrick had rolled his eyes before he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see Snape with a finger over his lips, Rodrick nodded. He could see Filch growing more and more panicked as Lockhart ranted. Rodrick went and took a seat in the office before he was followed by Nott and Lovegood.

"Are you sure?" Nott asked.

"Very," Rodrick replied.

"I think the headmaster is finished," Luna spoke quietly, she felt it unfair that everyone else had their head of house with them and she didn't.

"She's not dead," The headmaster spoke; he swept a gaze towards Rodrick's direction.

The light returned to Argus Filch's creepy looking face.

The look on Lockhart's face was the best thing he could've ever asked for. Rodrick beamed before he remembered his situation and took on a more passive look.

"She has been petrified," Dumbledore added on, Lockhart's face quickly changed to match one that said he'd already known. Even the professors rolled their eyes at that. "But How I cannot say,"

"Ask him!" Filch yelled off, pointing towards Harry Potter. Once again surprising Rodrick.

Before he could say anything else, Rodrick spoke out, "It wasn't him." Everyone's eyes turned to him at that, even Filch's.

"How wou-" he was about to speak.

"Because we got there before them," Rodrick spoke pointing to his group, he quickly added on "We were going to our detention with Professor Lockhart, they showed up after us," It took a lot out of Rodrick to call him a professor, Nott noticed if the small smirk on his face was anything to go by.

"Is that so?" Dumbledore turned his attention to the professor who simply nodded on, completely forgetting the fact that Luna didn't actually have a detention with him.

"How did you know it wasn't dead?" Rodrick turned to the source of the question, it was Granger.

"You even know what was wrong with her before the headmaster!" added on Weasley.

No one else said anything; they were waiting for him.

"I checked when I got there; she wasn't moving."

"She could've been dead; you saw the blood on the wall!" Ron replied, he quickly regretted it. Filch was glaring daggers at him at that.

"If it were her blood there would've been signs of someone taking it out of the cat, considering there weren't any injuries on it, I assumed she was stunned." It sounded a lot better than I saw it in my dreams, there was no way he was mentioning a Basilisk.

The people around stared at him, before Dumbledore broke the silence, "A good assumption," He moved away from the cat, "I believe the students are tired and will be wanting their sleep." Dumbledore spoke, his eyes gazing over the six students.

The six all but ran outside the classroom, each group going their own ways.

Snape sneered slightly at the thought of Potter leaving without trouble but there was no helping it, if anyone were likely to get into any, it would be his own students, they were there first after all. It was only later that Snape realized Potter and his friends were never asked what they were doing there in the first place.

"Why did you decide to help Potter?" Nott asked as soon as they left.

Rodrick was a little surprised; he expected Nott to be a bit smarter than this. He wasn't the one who answered though.

"Because the others, or more specifically, that red-haired one could've pinned the blame on us instead, we were there first remember," Luna spoke in a surprisingly normal voice.

The two stared at her, that wasn't normal. "Ah... fair enough, and his name is Weasel, Broke Weasel." Nott spoke, laughing at his own joke.

Rodrick sighed.

"Nott, leave the jokes to... Everyone else..."

Luckily for Luna, Ravenclaw tower came up first before the Slytherins nest of snakes, when she turned to Rodrick she saw him wink at her before she realized he took a longer way so she wouldn't be going off on her own. She smiled and thanked him; she chuckled once the two were on their way, the look on Nott's face was quite amusing.

"I didn't take you for the sentimental type," Nott spoke to the Slytherin next to him.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow before asking what he took him for.

"... I have no idea actually."

Rodrick smirked, "Good," Causing Nott to roll his eyes.

"And it's hardly sentimental; we got to see where Ravenclaw's Common room is." Rodrick lied, he wasn't risking that basilisk suddenly craving blondes.

Nott's eyes lit up at that; a mischievous grin took over his face.

Rodrick shook his head slightly; it really wasn't worrying, he hadn't met a Slytherin capable of answering a riddle to save their lives yet.

Arriving at the dungeons, Rodrick was both grateful and upset that Daphne wasn't there waiting for him. The others weren't either, but that wasn't new. He found Malfoy in the middle of a group of Slytherins. When he saw them, he quickly waved them over... Here Rodrick just wanted some sleep... Remembering the visions, he quickly thanked Malfoy in his head. He silently prayed not to have one again so soon.

He had a vision that night.

...

Rodrick was currently running around the same hallway, he turned to his side and was surprised when he saw a giant rabbit there jumping on along with him. The two seemed to be running through the same hallway over and over again. When he finally turned to look down on himself he recoiled slightly, his body was on fire, looking towards his feet he shook his head and turned back up. It was either a dream, or he grew talons. It was then that the repeating hallway seemed to stop repeating. As he entered through the closed doors he felt a sharp pain in his chest; he turned towards the giant rabbit only to see it hopping away frantically. Turning back ahead he saw the familiar girls bathroom; it was the abandoned one. He saw three students come out of it, Potter and his friends. They were standing there in front of him, unmoving. Behind them he could see steam coming out from a cauldron, small bits of ingredients whirling around it, there was a giant firework explosion before he saw more ingredients appear from Granger's pocket. when he turned his face back to the students, he found them in Slytherin robes, their faces starting to change.

The dream ended in a blaze of fire.

Rodrick woke with a start, for the first time he understood what was going to happen, well long as he ignored the fire... That was the first time that happened, he wasn't happy he'd had a vision so soon but he was glad it was understandable. Those three idiots were making the Polyjuice potion, if that wasn't bad enough, Slytherin was involved. If he had to guess it meant they were going to try to make it around Slytherin? No... They were going to get their ingredients around some Slytherins... Potions. They were going to try and steal them in Potions. Either that or they planned to try and pretend to be Slytherins... Knowing his luck... It was both. Rodrick sighed, does he stop it from the start or does he let it occur and see what happens? Plus what could they possibly want from pretending to be Slytherins?

'Don't tell me they think it'll save them from the basilisk?'

Rodrick's facepalmed himself. It was an actual possibility.