Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Third floor of the castle.
Neither the Weasley brothers nor Cedric noticed that as they hurriedly fled, the door that had been opened slowly closed again.
"Click..."
The tightly closed door blocked Fluffy's roar, and the corridor returned to silence.
Inside, Fluffy stood there, its three noses constantly sniffing something in the corner.
Fluffy moved closer and closer, and just as its nose was about to touch the corner, an arm suddenly stretched out from the air.
"Slap!"
The arm seemed very disgusted by Louie's actions, and swung it around, slapping one of its heads.
"Get out of the way!"
"Woof!"
Fluffy, far from being angry after being slapped, wagged its tail and excitedly moved closer.
It remembered the voice, and the smell—it was the person who could understand it and always brought delicious jerky whenever they met.
Fluffy happily moved closer, its three big heads nudging each other.
"Alright, Fluffy... step back."
Reluctantly, Kyle lifted his invisibility cloak, patted Fluffy's large head, and took out three large bags of pre-prepared snacks from his pocket, placing them on the ground.
There was enough for all three heads; no one had to fight over it.
Fluffy quickly lowered his head and began to devour the jerky.
This jerky was the most delicious food he had ever eaten, but Hagrid never made it for him.
Just as Fluffy was eating, a series of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.
"Bang..." The door was yanked open violently.
"Damn it, the door's locked." Ron's whimpering voice came from outside. "We're doomed, we're going to die!"
"Oh... come quick!" It was a rather rough voice.
Kyle glanced at the door, frowned, and put his Invisibility Cloak back on.
"Alohamora!"
The lock clicked, and the door suddenly opened.
The next second, four panicked young wizards rushed in, then turned and slammed the door shut, pressing their ears against it.
After a moment, Ron whispered, "He thought it was locked. I don't think anything more will happen..."
"Ron, I have a bad feeling," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "Remember those growls we heard earlier? I think they came from this room... What's wrong, Neville?"
As he spoke, Harry noticed Neville tugging at his sleeve. He turned around and saw Neville's face had suddenly turned deathly pale, large beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.
Without needing to ask, Harry quickly understood why Neville was like this.
He saw a Cerberus.
Disturbed from eating, Fluffy was extremely displeased. It glared at the young wizards, its three heads simultaneously emitting angry growls.
Ron and Neville were stunned. They stood there, frozen, their legs trembling uncontrollably despite their urge to run.
Harry, however, reacted the fastest. He fumbled for the door behind him, and together with Hermione, dragged Ron and Neville out.
Fluffy didn't chase after them, only letting out a couple of token shouts before resuming his jerky.
But Harry and the others didn't know that, like the other upperclassmen, they fled the third floor without looking back.
They didn't stop, panting, until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Where have you all been!" the Fat Lady demanded. "What day is it? Including those two from earlier, there are six little wizards out for a night out."
"Don't ask…"
"Pig snout, pig snout…"
Pig snout was the password. The Fat Lady didn't ask anything more and started spinning forward. They stumbled into the common room and slumped into the armchairs, trembling.
For a long while, no one spoke, especially Neville, who seemed like he would never speak again.
"It's strange…" Hermione, catching her breath, spoke first. "Did you notice that dog was eating?"
"Yeah, it almost ate us," Ron said, still shaken. "It was probably thinking about how to eat us all in one bite."
"What are your eyes for?" Hermione snapped. "I mean, it was already eating before we even went in, and it was three portions of packaged food."
"What does that prove?" Harry asked.
"Can't you two use your brains?" Hermione said impatiently. "Remember those howls we heard on the way here?
That means someone was in that room before us, and that person even appeased Cerberus with food. He must have had a purpose."
"You're overthinking it. We should be thanking him," Ron said, patting his chest. "If he hadn't brought Cerberus food beforehand, we probably would have…"
"Didn't you notice where Cerberus was standing?" Hermione demanded.
"On the floor?" Ron said nonchalantly. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy looking at its heads. You probably didn't notice, it has three heads."
"Not on the floor, on the trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."
"Guarding something?"
"Yes!" Hermione stood up, glaring at them angrily.
"If you two don't mind, I'm going to sleep now… lest one of you come up with some brilliant idea to get yourself killed, or worse… expelled!"
Ron stared at her retreating figure, his mouth agape in astonishment.
"Which is worse? She really should think this through before she says it."
On the other side, after Harry and the others left, Kyle lifted his Invisibility Cloak again. He walked over to Fluffy and tried to open the trapdoor beneath it.
At first, Fluffy held on tightly, refusing to let Kyle pass.
Only after Kyle took out Fawkes' feather did it move its paws.
"See, I told you I was here representing Dumbledore, but you wouldn't believe me," Kyle said sternly. "As punishment, you won't get any more Murtlap Rat jerky next time."
Fluffy panicked at the mention of this, throwing a tantrum on the ground. Then it sidled up to Kyle, its three big heads looking at him pitifully.
If a tabby cat had made that expression, Kyle would have been completely defenseless.
But Fluffy was just too ugly to be in this situation. Kyle felt a throbbing pain in his forehead after just one glance.
For peace and quiet, and for the sake of his own eyes, Kyle could only casually pull out a large bag of Murtlap Rat jerky and tossed it aside.
Fluffy ran over excitedly.
Kyle ignored him, instead opening the trapdoor and peering down.
It was pitch black below; he couldn't see anything.
[End of the chapter]