Fourth floor of the castle.
Neither the Weasley brothers nor Cedric noticed that as they hurriedly fled, the door slowly closed behind them.
Click…
The tightly shut door blocked out Fluffy's roars, and the corridor returned to silence.
Inside, Fluffy stood with its three noses constantly sniffing toward something in the corner. As it moved closer, just as its nose was about to touch the corner, an arm suddenly extended from thin air.
Slap!
That arm, clearly annoyed by Fluffy's behavior, delivered a solid smack to one of its dog heads.
"Get away!"
Whimper!
After being slapped, Fluffy wasn't angry at all. Instead, it wagged its tail and approached with three excited faces.
It remembered this voice and this scent — the person who could understand its speech and always brought delicious jerky whenever they met.
Fluffy happily approached, its three large heads nuzzling back and forth.
"Alright Fluffy... step back."
With no other choice, Kyle lifted his invisibility cloak, patted the cerberus's large head, and took out three packages of snacks he had prepared in advance, placing them on the ground.
Each head got a share, so none had to fight.
Fluffy quickly lowered its heads and began to feast heartily. This jerky was the most delicious food it had ever eaten, but Hagrid never made it for Fluffy.
While it was eating, the sound of chaotic footsteps came from outside the door.
Bang…
Someone pulled hard on the door.
"It's over, the door is locked." Ron's whimpering voice came from outside, "We're finished, we're doomed!"
"Oh... come here!"
This was a somewhat harsh voice.
Kyle looked toward the door, frowned, and put the invisibility cloak back on.
✭ Alohomora ➜ Unlocking Charm ✭
With a click of the lock, the door suddenly opened.
The next second, four panicked young wizards rushed in together, quickly closed the door behind them, and pressed their ears against it.
After a moment, Ron said softly, "He thinks it's locked. I don't think we'll have any more trouble..."
"Ron, I have a bad feeling." Harry said with a deep breath, "Remember those growls we heard earlier? I think they came from this room... What's wrong, Neville?"
Harry noticed Neville tugging at his sleeve and turned to find his friend's face deathly pale, with beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.
Without asking, Harry quickly realized why Neville looked this way.
He had seen the three-headed dog.
Disturbed during its meal, Fluffy was extremely displeased. It glared at the young wizards, all three heads simultaneously letting out angry growls.
Ron and Neville stood dumbfounded, frozen in place. Though their minds screamed at them to run, their legs trembled uncontrollably.
At the critical moment, Harry reacted quickest. He fumbled to open the door behind him and, together with Hermione, dragged Ron and Neville out.
Fluffy didn't chase after them — just symbolically barked a few times before lowering its heads to resume eating the jerky.
But Harry and the others didn't know this. Like the older students before them, they fled the fourth floor without looking back.
They only stopped, panting and wheezing, when they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Where have you all been?" The Fat Lady asked, "What day is it today? Including the two earlier, that makes six young wizards out wandering at night."
"Don't ask..."
"Pig snout, pig snout..."
Pig snout was the password. The Fat Lady didn't inquire further and swung forward. They stumbled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, onto the armchairs.
For quite a while, no one spoke — especially Neville, who looked as though he might never speak again.
"How strange..." Having caught her breath, Hermione was the first to speak, "Did you notice that the dog was eating something?"
"Yeah, it nearly ate us." Ron, still not recovered, said fearfully, "It must have been thinking about how to swallow us all in one gulp."
"What do you use your eyes for?" Hermione said angrily, "I mean it was already eating before we went in, and there were three portions — packaged food."
"What does that prove?" Harry asked.
"Don't you ever use your brains?" Hermione said impatiently, "Remember those growls we heard on our way? This means someone had already been in that room before us, and that person pacified the three-headed dog with food. They must have had a purpose for doing so."
"You're overthinking it. We should be grateful to them." Ron said, patting his chest, "If they hadn't brought food for the three-headed dog beforehand, we might have..."
"Didn't you notice where the three-headed dog was standing?" Hermione demanded.
"On the floor?" Ron said carelessly, "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy looking at its heads. You might not have noticed, but it has three of them."
"Not the floor — a 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 bed now... before either of you comes up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse... expelled!"
Ron stared at her retreating back, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"She needs to sort out her priorities…"
✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
Meanwhile.
After Harry and the others left, Kyle lifted his invisibility cloak again and walked over to Fluffy, attempting to open the trapdoor beneath it.
At first, Fluffy pressed down firmly on it, refusing to let him through no matter what. It wasn't until Kyle took out a feather from Fawkes that it finally moved its paws.
"See, I told you I was here on Dumbledore's behalf, but you wouldn't believe me." He said with a stern face, "As punishment, you won't get any Murtlap jerky next time."
Hearing this, Fluffy became frantic, throwing a tantrum on the ground before approaching him with its three large heads looking at him pitifully.
If a tabby cat had made such an expression, Kyle would have had absolutely no resistance.
But Fluffy was simply too ugly to pull this off. He only had to look at it for a moment before his forehead began to throb.
For the sake of peace and quiet — and for the sake of his own eyes — Kyle had no choice but to casually pull out a large package of Murtlap jerky and toss it aside.
Fluffy ran over to it with delight. Kyle ignored the creature, lifted the trapdoor on his own, and peered down.
However, it was pitch black below, and he couldn't see anything.
✭✭✭
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