Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. . Jude and Raven belong to my friend, Nev.

Children of Lies

Chapter Sixteen: A Boy Explores

Much to the Slytherin team's happiness, Quidditch practice became much more relaxed after the mind-blowing victory against Gryffindor. The only match before the Winter Hols was Ravenclaw verses Hufflepuff and since Slytherin wasn't playing until January, Bevan had no reason to force his team to stick to their rigorous training schedule until after term restarted. For this reason, the team met only once a week. This gave Duncan much more free time, an amount of free he hadn't faced in a long while. Scorpius recommended that Duncan spend the time studying seeing as his marks weren't what they should be. The twins suggested they explore the castle. Naturally, Duncan decided that it was a better use of his time and Jude was insistently on board. After some slight hesitation, Albus was, too. They could stay away from the Divination classroom. As for Scorpius, he found that he was being dragged along against his will. Well, he supposed it wasn't really against his will since it didn't take much coercion from Albus for him to agree.

On most days when they didn't have class, Albus would pull out his Invisibility Cloak from his trunk and they would disappear into the castle. On one such day in early December, the boys decided to find out exactly what was in the dungeons they lived near. The Second Year Slytherins had their Common Room and dormitories in the dungeons, but they had seen little more of them aside from the Potion's classroom. Raven, with a sly grin, had approached the rest of them during breakfast that morning, suggesting they finally figure out what was in them. Haley had looked up at Raven with a skeptical expression, but she quickly went back to reading her magazine. Raven, deciding that her vote didn't count since she wasn't coming, was met with a unanimous positive response.

The boys quickly stuffed down their meals and ran out of the Great Hall, heading straight to the dungeons. Raven and Nate wore matching grins as they excitingly conversed about what they might discover.

"Oh! What if they have a werewolf chained down there?" gasped Nate, wide eyed.

"No way! Not after all those new laws that were enacted! I think Hogwarts would be shut down if that happened and people found out," retorted Raven at his brother.

"Hey, Al! Isn't your family mates with a werewolf?" asked Nate.

"Yeah! Teddy Lu-"

"Yeah, see! The Potters would probably go bonkers! The last thing that Hogwarts needs is Mr. Potter's anger!" pointed out Nate.

"Okay fine! Not a werewolf then. How about a Boggart?" suggested Raven.

"Ohhh! I can whip out my wand and show it whose boss!" bragged Nate, plugging out his wand and waving it over his head.

As the twins got caught up in their dialogue, Duncan turned to his other dormmates and asked, "What's a Boggart?"

"It's a magical creature that turns into your worst fear," explained Scorpius. "Apparently we'll learn about them in Defense. Dad said so, anyway."

Albus nodded. "My Dad said that his professor in third year brought one in."

"Well, then they can't be that dangerous if a teacher was allowed to bring one into a classroom of third years," scoffed Duncan.

"Yeah? Well then maybe you should fight one!" joked Jude, elbowing Duncan in the side. Duncan was about to make a retort, but couldn't when he found himself crashing into Nate. Jude and Albus moved to stabilize Duncan, just managing to stop their dormmate from falling onto the ground.

"Aye! What was that for?" Duncan yelled as he fixed his footing.

"We're in the dungeons," stated Raven. "Nate and I figured we'd want to agree on a direction to head in."

Duncan, Jude, Albus, and Scorpius looked around and confirmed that they were, in fact, where Raven said they were. The four boys had lost themselves in their conversation and had blindly followed the twins, not at all paying attention to where they were heading. The dungeons were completely dark, save for some oil lamps floating in midair, and the four of them barely notice three hallways branching out ahead of them. One of the hallways was easily recognizable as the one heading towards the Slytherin Common Room. They knew the second to lead to the Potions Classroom. The third was one they had not gone down before, although they passed it often in the past.

Jude was the first to speak. "I say we head that way," he said, pointing to the unfamiliar hallway. The other five boys nodded and started walking. As they kept going, the hallway kept getting narrower until they were forced to walk single file. Finally, they managed to reach the end. Nate, who was in front, reached over and felt against the wall. His hand grazed a door handle and he stepped back, contemplating what he should do.

"What wrong?" asked Scorpius, his face wearing the same mask of confusion as all the other boys.

"There's a door here," said Nate.

"Well open it! We don't have all day," ordered Jude.

Nate nodded, grasped the door handle, and pulled. The door didn't open very easily, but when it finally did, all they could see was a dark room. Nate, Raven, Jude, Duncan, and Albus walked forward into the room. Scorpius, wide eyed, grabbed for Albus' arm and pulled him back while screaming, "Stop! Don't go in there!" There was a loud scream that Scoprius recognized as Duncan's. Instantly, panic washed over Scorpius and he clung tigher to Albus' arm. He couldn't see any of his other friends as they had all walked into the room already. The blonde fumbled for his wand and, finally managing to pull it out, screamed, "Lumos!" He stuck his wand tip into the dark room and it instantly lit up.

"Bloody hell, Scorpius! Are you trying to give me permanent eye damage?" hissed Nate, covering his eyes from the light. Scorpius looked around the room and his panic quacking dissipated. His four other dormmates were standing around in the room, clear as day. He tentatively released Albus and, after taking a deep breath, was about to step inside when something dawned on him. Why had Duncan screamed?

Scorpius whipped his head around and gasped. All across the walls of the room was a green, glowing goo. Scorpius had no idea what it was, but it couldn't be safe. "Wait! Stop! You don't know what that stuff is!" screamed Scorpius. He grabbed for Albus' arm, for he was still the closest, and tried to pull him back.

"Scorp, let go! The others are fine! It's probably harmless!" cried Albus, trying to shake off his panicking best friend, but Scorpius held on with a vice-like grip.

"Well, why did Duncan scream?" retorted Scorpius.

"Mate, I was shocked!" called Duncan. "The goo is fine! Listen to Al!"

"I still don't like this," said Scorpius.

"Well, then you don't have to go in, but let me go! I'll be fine! Everyone else is-" said Albus, but he was cut off when a loud shriek was heard. Scorpius and Albus whipped around just in time to see Nate get pulled to the ground. Scorpius and Albus were the first to act. They leaped into the room, rushing towards their fallen dormmate. Despite their efforts, Raven was closer and beat them. He reached for his twin and managed to grab Nate's hand. Scorpius and Albus made it and grabbed ahold of Nate as well. Scorpius could hear Duncan and Jude behind them and it was a matter of seconds before they too managed to make it over to Nate.

"Don't you dare let go of me!" screamed the twin.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" yelled Raven, hoping that it made his brother feel better.

Suddenly, Scorpius felt Albus' presence next to him disappear. The blond spun his head around and heard his friend scream, "Scorp! Help! It's got me!" Albus was being dragged away by an unseen force, probably the same force that had attached itself to Nate. The brunet was grappling for Scorpius and Scropius was forced to release Nate. He grabbed for Albus' arm and held on as tight as he could. Scorpius desperately wished he had his wand, but he had dropped it when it had grabbed for Nate. In any case, he knew there would be no way he could hold onto Albus with only one hand. As it was, they were already slipping across the floor.

"I should have listened to you, Scorp! We all should have! You're brilliant and I'm stupid for not remembering that!" cried Albus.

"Don't say that! I've got you! Just don't let go of me!" screamed Scorpius. As he said it, he could feel vines wrapping around his legs. It would only be a matter of seconds until he lost his footing and the both of them would be dragged off.

"Defodio!" The voice blasted through the room and suddenly Scorpius felt himself being released. He fell into a sitting position and pulled Albus into a hug, relieved that they were still alive. Albus hugged back and pressed his face into Scorpius' shoulder, his heart hammering in his chest. He had been so terrified. Whoever had cast that spell had saved their life.

"Can one of you please tell me what you all are doing here?" called out a voice that Albus recognized as Professor Williams'. The brunet lifted his head up and squinted, his Transfiguration teacher coming into view.

"Professor…?" Albus weakly said.

With a brisk walk, the professor crossed the room and grabbed Albus by the arm, hoisting him up. Then, she leaned over and grabbed Scorpius' by the ear. She turned to look at the other four boys and said, "To my office. Now."

While she dragged Scorpius and Albus out of the room, Duncan, Jude, and the twins followed behind dutifully. Professor Williams led them up to the ground floor and to the Transfiguration wing. They walked past classroom upon classroom. The six boys expected her to drag them into one of the classrooms since they had never been in the Transfiguration office even when Professor Harkness had been teaching. Professor Williams had spent very little time decorating the classroom, the extent of her decorations being a few sporadic plants. When the professor finally dragged them into her office, the first thing they noticed was one thing: plants covered almost every centimeter of the office.

Professor Williams sat down and stared at the boys from across her desk. "What do you think you were doing? As second years, you should know that you shouldn't go into unknown areas of the castle. You could have died!"

The Slytherins were silent for sometime, letting their teacher's words sink in. Then, Scorpius said, "Ma'am, what was that in the dungeon?"

"It shouldn't matter what that was! It's none of your-" screamed Professor Williams, but then she stopping. Instead, she said, "That is a personal project of mine that I am conducting with permission from Professor Sprout. Don't go down there again. Do you understand?"

Scropius bowed his head. "Yes, ma'am," he mumbled. The other five repeated Scorpius' words. Professor Williams waved her arm, making it clear that they were to leave. The six boys turned around and walked out of the room, breaking into a sprint as soon as they would outside. As soon as the last boy had left, the door was closed with a slam. The Slytherins ran down to the dungeon, this time ignoring the unfamiliar hallway. They headed towards their common room and, when reaching the door, screamed the password. The door to the Common Room swung open and they stumbled inside. Nate was the first in the door and he tripped over his own two feet, falling flat on his face. His dormmates ended up falling over as well, creating a man pile in front of the door.

"Well well well. Look who it is." The boys looked up to see Haley standing there with a smirk. "Had fun exploring?"

Raven ignored her and pulled a wand out of his pocket. He passed it over to Scoprius and said, "This is yours. I found it under my foot back in the dungeon." Then, he, Duncan, Jude, and Nate pushed past Haley and headed towards the dormitory.

Albus watched them leave and mumbled something along the lines of, "It was great," to Haley. Then, he followed Scorpius over to one the couches as the Malfoy tried to clean some of the goo from his wand.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Hey guys! Long time no update! Sorry about that... but I'm going to try and post some more chapters in the near future. I want to try and get to chapter 20 by the end of July. I don't know how well that's going to happen, but fingers crossed!

I hope you enjoyed this. Please review and tell me what you think!