The door to the room at the end of the fourth floor stood half-open. Music came through the gap in fits and starts as Harry blew on the flute Hagrid had given him, his face red with effort.
Three-headed Fluffy was asleep on the floor, his fur spread around him like a pool of water. Ron carefully stepped over him.
They gathered around the open Trapdoor. It was pitch-black below, and they couldn't see a thing.
Harry gestured that he would go first, then handed the flute to Hermione.
For once, Eliana didn't fight to be first. She stared at the snoring Fluffy on the floor and ground her teeth.
"Hermione, give me the flute in a minute. I'll go down last."
Hermione stared at her, wide-eyed.
Eliana felt a tiny pang of guilt, but then she straightened up indignantly. "He bit Professor Snape, you know. Let me kick him once. Just once, I promise."
Just then, Harry called up from below. "It's soft down here. You can come down."
"Down you go!"
Ron shoved her through with one hand and jumped down after her.
It was soft, all right.
Eliana landed with a thump on a heap of vine-like plants. Before she could even work out what had cushioned their fall, she sprang to her feet.
"Damn you, Ron! How dare you push me!"
She lunged at Ron. The two of them rolled across the floor, wrestling and thumping into each other until they slammed into a wall. That put an end to it.
"Ha. Serves you right," Harry said, watching them roll away, half exasperated and half amused. "From the sound of that, I don't think there are any plants in the corner. That was quite a bang."
"Didn't die from the fall, nearly died hitting the wall."