On Halloween morning, Harry and Ron stopped Tris as he was heading back to shower after his morning workout.
One look at their shifty expressions told Tris they were up to something.
He followed them to a secluded spot before asking, "You two seemed a bit distracted earlier. What's up? Did something happen? Did you upset Hermione?"
He asked because, during their run, Hermione had barely acknowledged Harry or Ron.
After spending all this time exercising and studying together, with Tris acting as their "lubricant," the trio actually got along quite well.
Normally, apart from rolling her eyes when Ron wanted to copy her homework, Hermione was pretty easy to get along with.
Today, however, her attitude toward the two of them was noticeably different.
Was tonight's rescue-the-damsel-in-distress incident still going to happen?
Tris was curious, mainly about how the incident would play out.
Harry and Ron glanced around, making sure nobody was paying attention before lowering their voices. "Tris, do you know that corridor on the third floor? The one Dumbledore told us not to enter at the opening feast?"
"Yeah, I know it." Tris nodded, though his thoughts were churning.
He had forgotten all about that.
He knew so well that the Third Floor Corridor housed a three-headed dog and a passage leading to the defenses around the Philosopher's Stone that he had unconsciously overlooked the fact that nobody else knew about it yet.
Knowing the plot could do that to you sometimes.
"Do you know what's inside?" Ron looked excited.
That expression told Tris these two little troublemakers had probably gone to investigate last night. They must have taken Hermione along, too, which explained her reaction that morning.
Still, the excitement on his idiot twin brother's face left Tris rather speechless.
No wonder he got sorted into Gryffindor while I ended up in Slytherin. Just look at that reckless mentality.
How could I compete with that? Was it even possible?
With those thoughts running through his head, Tris shook his head. "No idea. Dumbledore said not to go there, so I've never been anywhere near it. What, have you been there?"
"Yeah!" Harry and Ron nodded together. Harry said quietly, "Yesterday, after you and Daphne went back to your dormitories, Hermione and the two of us stayed to work on our homework a bit longer..."
Tris nodded.
Thanks to his presence, relations among the first-years weren't nearly so tense. They often sat together in the library to do their homework, occasionally "sharing resources" along the way.
Last night, the group had consisted of him, Daphne, Theodore, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
It was worth noting that although Theodore didn't talk to Hermione, he had no objection to her presence. That put him well ahead of Draco.
Apart from their morning runs, when he had no choice, Draco would generally steer clear whenever Hermione was around.
As far as Tris was concerned, he simply needed a good lesson. A few opportunities to knock some sense into him should cure that habit.
Tris worked quickly and had finished his homework early before returning to his dormitory. Lately, his efficiency had gone up, but the quality had dropped considerably, mainly because he needed more time to practice Samadhi True Fire and Starlit Meditation.
Professor McGonagall had tactfully brought it up once, but seeing his magical abilities improve steadily-and sometimes by leaps and bounds-she hadn't said much more.
Theodore now basically followed Tris wherever he went, so he had immediately left with him.
Daphne wasn't quite so attached, but once both her housemates had left, she felt a little awkward staying with three Gryffindors and naturally left as well.
That left the trio.
Harry continued, "Hermione kept refusing to let us copy one answer... er, use it for reference, so we stayed a bit late. By the time we headed back, it was nearly curfew.
"We hurried a little on the way, and then the corridor actually turned..."
By this point, Tris could pretty much guess what had happened next. The corridor and stairs changed direction, the three stumbled into the Third Floor Corridor, and someone had rashly decided to open the door?
Sure enough, things had happened almost exactly as he imagined.
Ron said, "We went up the stairs, but they kept moving around too, and somehow we ended up on the third floor. We were going to wait for the stairs to come back, but just then, Mrs. Norris appeared out of nowhere.
"She screeched the moment she saw us. You know how it is-if Mrs. Norris is there, Filch can't be far away. It was already past curfew, so we'd have been done for if we got caught. We went into that little room instead. The door was locked, but heh, one Alohomora from me opened it right up."
By the end, Ron was looking rather pleased with himself again.
"You opened it?" Tris sounded doubtful, looking from Ron to Harry.
Harry nodded firmly. "Ron opened it, but Hermione only taught him the spell last week."
"You could've left that last bit out, Harry." Ron rolled his eyes at him.
"Right, and then?" Though he knew perfectly well what came next, Tris kept up the act and asked.
He was a dedicated actor. If he was going to put on a performance, he had to see it through.
"A dog! An enormous dog! Just one of its heads was this big!" Ron grew excited, gesturing wildly and spreading his arms wide.
"This big! This big! One head was bigger than my whole body! And-and it had three heads. Tris, do you know what three heads means?"
"A three-headed dog?" Tris put on a shocked expression. "Those aren't exactly common."
"Exactly! A three-headed dog! My legs nearly gave out. If Harry hadn't pulled me away, it would've almost bitten me." Ron claimed he had been frightened, but his eyes were shining. He looked excited rather than scared.
"Right, and then? You got out?"
"Of course! Otherwise, how would I be standing here?" Ron said as though it were obvious. "But that's not the important bit..."
Here, Ron paused for effect.
Tris obligingly asked what the important bit was, and Ron excitedly replied, "You know what? I saw a trapdoor underneath that three-headed dog!"
"Hermione was the one who saw it," Harry said, exposing his friend's claim without mercy.
"Harry, keep this up and we can't be friends anymore." Ron glared at him indignantly. He had picked that line up from Tris and thought it was amusing.
Harry bared his teeth in a mischievous grin, completely unconcerned.
Ron hadn't meant it seriously anyway, and soon continued, "Dumbledore wouldn't just stick a dog that big in Hogwarts Castle for no reason. There has to be a reason. Tris, do you think that dog is guarding something?
"Could it be treasure? Hogwarts must have treasure, right? The four Founders were the four greatest wizards of their age."
"Could be!" Tris nodded with a solemn air.
"Actually, I've got an idea." Harry stroked his chin.
"What idea?" Ron looked at Harry unhappily. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"I only just thought of it," Harry said, entirely justified. "Hey, do you think whatever that three-headed dog is guarding might have something to do with the thing Hagrid took out of Gringotts?"
"Hey, now you mention it, that's possible!" Ron clapped his hands approvingly. "It must be something incredible, right?
"Didn't you guess before that whoever broke into Gringotts was after that thing? It all makes sense now! It must be something so rare and valuable that someone would go so far as to break into Gringotts to steal it!
"And even at Hogwarts, they need something as dangerous as a three-headed dog to guard it. That must be it."
Tris couldn't help giving Harry another look. That's Harry for you!
That little brain of his really works! He guessed the truth straight away.
"What do you think, Tris?" Harry looked at him.
"I think your reasoning makes a lot of sense." Tris nodded. "But we still don't know what it is, and Hagrid won't tell us."
"Yeah, Hagrid won't tell us." Harry seemed to recall their earlier visit to Hagrid's. They had barely touched on the subject before Hagrid had made it clear he didn't want to discuss it.
If they went and asked, Hagrid certainly wouldn't tell them.
At that thought, both Harry and Ron looked disappointed.
In Charms, it was the familiar combination of the Levitation Charm and feathers.
Tris asked curiously, "Does the Levitation Charm make a feather float by giving it an upward force, or by reducing the gravitational pull on it?"
"An interesting question." Professor Flitwick smiled. "Both, and yet neither."
That answer didn't satisfy Tris, but he didn't pursue it. He was more curious about whether Hermione and Ron would still clash in the other Charms class.
During flying class that afternoon, Tris was a little disappointed to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione all behaving normally. At the same time, he was surprised to discover that Harry's flying skills had lately been improving at a rather unreasonable pace.
Tris had no particular talent for flying himself. Still, in his view, Draco, Ron, and even Daphne were all reasonably talented.
Although Harry had performed better than all of them during Madam Hooch's test in their first lesson, Daphne and Ron had improved quickly in the second, even showing signs of catching up.
But things had changed over the following two lessons.
Harry seemed to be improving faster and faster, and now he was clearly far ahead of Ron and Draco. Some of his movements even resembled the Quidditch maneuvers Ron had talked about at home.
Tris wasn't particularly interested in Quidditch and didn't know much about it, but after hearing so much, he had inevitably picked up a few things.
This didn't look like talent alone.
Unless...
A possibility occurred to Tris. Had Harry secretly joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team?
In the film, Professor McGonagall had spotted his talent during his very first flying lesson and taken him straight to Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
That incident hadn't happened this time, but Harry's talent was still plain to see. It was entirely possible that he had been recruited into the Quidditch team in secret.
After class, Tris asked with feigned casualness, "Harry, your flying's improved so much. Have you been practicing in secret?"
"Ah... well, um..." Harry wasn't actually a child who couldn't lie. In fact, after matching wits with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, he had been able to lie without blinking since he was little.
But lying to people he disliked was completely different from lying to a good friend.
So he stumbled over his words.
All right, looks like I guessed correctly.
Harry had joined the Quidditch team after all; the news simply hadn't been announced yet.
Though Tris had stirred up quite a bit of trouble and changed many things, some events had still happened.
Would the troll still appear at tonight's feast, then?