Chapter 27 - 27. no show and a puppy (2/2)
But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.”Now what am I going to do?” she asked shrilly.”That's your problem,” said Harry. Man when did he get so savage. ”We've got to go, we're going to be late.”
They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them. ”I'm coming with you,” she said.
”You are not.”
”D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up.”
”You've got some nerve -- ” said Harry loudly. Ryan sighed and said ”screw it just let her come with. Harry could only give up.They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by. ”He's late, maybe he's chickened out,” Daphne whispered.
Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak -- and it wasn't Malfoy. Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner.”
It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Ryan waved at the others to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Tonk's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room. ”They're in here somewhere,” they heard Filtch mutter, ”probably hiding.”This way!” Ryan mouthed to the others and, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Tonks suddenly let out a frightened squeak and tripped, grabbing Daphne around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor. With all the finesse of a T-rex in a China shop. It was like a sound explosion in the pitch black of the castle at midnight. ”CHEESE IT!” Ryan yelled, and all of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following -- they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going -- they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door -- and it was locked.They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could ”Oh, move over,” Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, ”Alohomora!”
The lock clicked and the door swung open -- they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening for a few minutes til it was quiet. Ryan knew this would happen but seeing it and reading it was a completely different feeling he was looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs. Luna squealed ”PUPPY!” and Ryan had to hold her back ah bless this child. That broke everyone else out of their stupor. Harry groped for the doorknob -- between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.
They fell backward -- Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared -- all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.Where on earth have you all been?” she asked, looking at their cloaks hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.
”Never mind that -- pig snout, pig snout,” panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.”What do they think they're doing, keeping a poor puppy like that locked up in a school?” said Luna finally. Ryan saw a maniac like gleam in her eyes and knew she probably wanted to head back and take it for a walk. Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. she snapped. ”Didn't you see what it was standing on.
”The floor?” Harry suggested. ”I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads.”No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something.”
She stood up, glaring at them.
”I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed -- or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed.” Ryan said goodnight to the girls and went back to his trunk glad that his task was completed he told luna as they cuddled that he would have hagrid introduce fluffy to her personally he knew Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. He put two stupid dogs on the tv to watch as they peacefully feel into slumber.