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Ch 13 "Shy" Boy? Part 1
🕑 Added 2024-08-02 14:17:14 +0000 UTC"What happened? Why did you stop here?" Dean asked in a bewildered whisper as he hurriedly ran out of the portrait hole, with the Fat lady snoring in it, only to find all four boys standing there outside the Gryffindor common room whispering to each other with confused looks on their faces.
All four of them awkwardly looked at each other before Harry cleared his throat, "Dean, you wouldn't happen to know where the Hufflepuff common room is, would you?" he asked with a small hopeful smile.
"No," Dean replied slowly, "Of course, not. Why would I?—Wait! Is that why you're still here? You don't even know where the dorms are?" he asked with a weird expression as if not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "You really are idiots..." he said shaking his head, "but I guess that means this plan is a bust..." he had a small amount of relief in his voice, "I am sorry Neville,"
The oddly determined expression on Neville's face crumbled into a sad one as Seamus bemoaned in annoyance at losing the chance to have a fun trip.
"No, Wait!" Ron abruptly spoke up with an enlightened expression on his face, "There is still something I can do," he let out as he began backing away towards the common room, "Harry! Is the, um, MM still in that bag I gave you?"
"Huh? O-Oh! Yes! It's still there right on my bed." Harry nodded with excitement as he belatedly understood what Ron was getting at.
"Perfect! You guys just wait here, I will be right back." he shot back as he dashed into the portrait hole.
"...It's not like we can go anywhere," Seamus murmured while scratching his head before turning towards Harry and asking curiously, "So what was Weasley talking about? What is MM?"
"Oh! That... um... I think, uh, it's the..."
"Wait, was he talking about MnM?" Dean asked with a confused expression on his face, "The muggle toffee's?"
"Yes!" Harry exclaimed immediately latching on to that opportunity, "It is surely that one..."
"But why? How is a Toffee going to help us with—"
"I'm back!" Thankfully a huffing and puffing Ron came out of the portrait hole at that exact moment so Harry didn't have to work his half-drunk hazy mind to come up with any more excuses.
"You have it?"
"Yes, I found it," Ron answered Harry while patting his pocket with a wink, "Now, Let's go, boys. I'll lead the way," he commanded the others before moving down the hallway with Neville and Harry following after him immediately.
"Wait! What did you get? How did you find out where the room was?"
"Don't worry about it. I just asked some old friends..." Ron whispered back with a mysterious smile on his face, "Now come on. You just need to trust in me and follow..."
"But—"
"Come on, you heard the man," Seamus said while excitedly slapping Dean's back, "Let's go!"
"Fine." Dean sighed helplessly but followed after them nonetheless.
And just like that the five drunk boys sauntered down the deserted hallways of Hogwarts to go on a noble quest of love for their friend.
All of them were moving in a straight line looking left and right sneakily with Ron leading from the very front.
Every now and then the red-haired boy would look down at something, that the other boys couldn't see, and take random five-minute stops before continuing. It confused the three not in the know but they were too nervous to talk in these empty hallways where even their steps echoed loudly.
"We're close now, boys," came a happy whisper from Ron about 15 minutes later after they climbed down some stairs into a deserted hallway, "The Hufflepuff common room is just about two hallways away now,"
"But isn't that where the kitchen is?" Dean asked confusedly, "Harry took us there to get the snacks just before the feast."
"You're not wrong about that." Ron replied distractedly, "But apparently, the Puff's common room is just beside the—Oh! Shit! Prefects!" he abruptly cried in a shocked tone while halting mid-step, his eyes once again down at his hands.
"What from where?" Harry asked hurriedly, looking left and right.
"From both sides," Ron answered looking panicked for the first time.
"But how do you know—"
"There isn't time for that, Dean. We need to—" Harry cut off impatiently as his eyes suddenly caught sight of a broom closet a few steps down the corridor, "There! Inside that! Go! Go! Go!" he hissed leading them towards the big closet, "Hurry get in here," he urged after being the first one in.
None of them hesitated too much as one after the other the boys piled up inside the big but not-so-big closet, stuffing themselves against brooms, buckets and each other's bodies as Ron, the last one in, closed the door behind him shrouding them in the darkness.
"Ugh! Neville you're crushing my toes!"
"Oh! Sorry—"
"Damn! I so didn't think that my first time in a closet would be with a bunch of guys," Seamus lamented in a tragic voice.
"Shh!! Keep quiet!" Ron hissed shutting the boy's whining, "They are almost here."
And he was right as at that exact moment footsteps sounded from both sides of the hallways leading to the broom closet, and there weren't just one or two but at least four people out there making the boys sweat even more, as the four people, two from either side, came to meet in the middle.
"Why are you here, Montague." a boyish asked from the left side, "Aren't you a bit far from your dungeon."
"The same reason you're here, Davis." a sneering male voice replied from the right, "We too felt the proximity ward trip around here so we came to check if there weren't any ickle puffs roaming around that we can... punish," he said the last words in such a greasy voice that it immediately sent shivers down the boy's spine.
"You—"
"No, Don't!" cautioned a girl's voice from beside the first boy on the left, "He is just trying to bait you. And you two! Even if there is someone breaking the rules here they would be handled by us as this area comes under our purview, so you better leave unless you want me to call the professors."
"Are you threatening me—"
"Ugh! Don't be such a brute, Montague," a new girl interrupted the Slytherin prefect coolly, "I don't want to waste my time arguing with these idiots. Let's go, besides it was probably that damn cat again..." the voice was already moving away before she even finished speaking.
"Humph! Fine." Montague snorted before following after his fellow Slytherin prefect, relieving most of the tension from the boys.
"Let's go," the girl from Hufflepuff said as the other two also went away from there down the opposite hallway of Hufflepuff dorms, and things finally went silent for a few seconds.
"Should we—Mmph!" Harry's hands covered Seamus's mouth before he could blurt out more than a few words, all the while nervously craning his ears to hear if any of the prefects were coming back.
Only after a full five minutes passed did Harry and Ron, the two most experienced with these kinds of excursions, breathe a sigh of relief, "I think we're safe now," Ron nodded into the darkness towards where he thought Harry was before slowly opening the door. He peeked down at either end of the hallways a few times as added measures before finally the last of the tension left his shoulders and he exited, "You can all come out now,"
"Argh!!" One after the other the boys stumbled out of the broom closet, their faces red and they were taking deep heavy breaths and sweating as if they had just run a marathon.
"That was close, wasn't it?" Seamus mumbled while wiping his sweat, "Can you imagine what would have happened if they managed to find us in that closet, " he snorted with a grin, "Just thinking about explaining to them what five young boys were doing inside that closet...ugh..."
"It's not a laughing matter you idiot," Dean hissed with a fearful expression on his face, "We were almost caught, so maybe we should—"
"The path is clear," Ron abruptly interrupted while placing something in his pocket, "Let's hurry before they come back," he said and then immediately took off towards the hallway leading towards the Hufflepuff dorms.
"Let's go," Seamus said while patting Dean's shoulder before following after the other three. Dean groaned in frustration but had to follow after the boys nonetheless as he knew that it was too late to turn back now.
They took a left at the next intersection and then a right at the end of that corridor leading them straight into a wide hallway.
This corridor was somehow warmer than the other ones and had long lines of brightly lit torches set into iron brackets along the walls.
They passed by the inconspicuous portrait of the bowl of fruits on the left wall that also served as the entrance to the kitchen before finally reaching a stack of large wooden barrels touching the ceiling.
"Here, this is the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room," Ron announced waving grandly towards the barrels.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked sceptically while searching but not finding any hint of a door or a knob anywhere.
"I am. This is it."
"Perfect. Then, what's next..." Dean asked looking behind them nervously, "Do you also have the password with you or do we need to guess or answer some stupid questions..."
"Ah! But that's the best part." Ron replied with a triumphant grin while taking out his wand, "There is no such thing as a password here..." Ron smirked before he went to the barrel two from the bottom and middle of the second row and tapped in the rhythm of 'Huffle-Puff'.
Almost immediately the barrels started rearranging themselves as if they were puzzle pieces and a few seconds later a deep cave-like entrance appeared in front of them leading straight to the Hufflepuff common room.
