"Shhh. Quiet. Someone's coming," a slim young witch with long brown curls motioned to the other two chattering young witches to settle down.

She peered over the top of the thick stone bench that they were hiding behind and light blue eyes brightened further when a dark haired Gryffindor came into view.

Two more heads joined hers and the tall blond witch smiled an excited and mischievous smile at the shorter brown haired and brown eyed witch. "Ready?" she chimed.

The smallest witch smiled back with a little less enthusiasm than her Ravenclaw friend. "You sure we won't get into trouble?"

The former witch rolled her eyes slightly. "It'll be fiiine."

The first witch shushed them both again. "Get ready, it's now or never."

"C'mon Angel, do your stuff!" the blond haired witch whispered.

"Why are we doing this again?" responded Angel.

The curly haired witch was the one to respond. "If we can put Harry in a life threatening situation then Sevy can save him and Harry will start to think that he's not all that bad."

"Thus making it easier for us to convince them that they belong together as a family," finished the blond haired witch.

"Why'm I doing this?" Angel tried again.

"Because you're the best at Transfiguration. Now transfigure!"

Raising her wand the witch known as Angel concentrated and mumbled a couple of words. Almost immediately the small golden earring that the girls had left on the corridor floor began to change. Its shape rounded and its colour intensified. It shuddered slightly and began to vibrate as small metal wings sprang out from its new form and took it into the air.

"Nice work!" the blond witch praised quietly.

"Thanks Saya," replied Angle, happy at the compliment paid her.

Almost immediately the raven haired young wizard spotted the newly transfigured snitch. He licked his lips as his jaw set in excited determination as he quickly checked over his shoulder to ensure that the coast was clear.

Slowly he eased his way forward, careful not to loose sight of his target. His steps were gentle on the stone floor and, unbeknownst to him, brought him ever closer to the invisible trip wire on the ground.

The three young witches sat in intense anticipation as he moved closer and closer to the wire. He was barely a few steps away, just a short few paces . . . !

"HARRY!"

The boy stopped and turned. His target forgotten.

"C'mon Harry! We promised we'd go see Hagrid and it's nearly curfew already!" a red headed Gryffindor called out.

"Right," responded the dark haired youth. "Coming."

The two Gryffindors left the corridor, Harry back-tracking the route he'd just walked down.

In the empty and silent space three faces were still frozen in the varying forms of anticipation and anxiety. Expressions fixed they slowly, almost mechanically, turned and sat down with their backs to the cold stone.

"Fizzle," cursed the curly haired witch, being the first to break the silence.

"Rose . . . What just happened?" asked Angel.

"We lost him," answered Saya with annoyance.

"So . . . Now what do we do?"

The three sat in quiet contemplation for a number of minutes. Saya was about to open her mouth when a ‘click' followed by a winding noise filled the silence instead.

A sudden sense of horror washed over the three as slowly they turned back around to once again gain view of the corridor over the stone bench.

The sense of horror intensified as a new figure came into view, one that was completely clad in long black robes and was he, himself watching the progress of a series of carefully planed actions.

The trip wire had been, well . . . ‘tripped' and that in turn had released a small ball that was currently rolling its way down a small ramp towards a suit of armour.

The ball hit the armour with a loud ‘clang' and the large Halberd fell out of the suit's hands, cutting a second wire as it fell. The second wire had been supporting the weight of a heavy book which now fell freely to the ground.

Upon the ground was a form of ‘homemade' see-saw which had a catapult effect as soon as the book hit it sending a solid rock flying through the air and through a glass window.

The girls watched in an almost detached horror as the solid sheet of glass crumpled and fell towards the cold, stone floor. A third wire had been attached to the window, but with no more support to it the wire was released and, in turn, released the hatch door that it had been holding shut.

The door swung open and from within the makeshift box that had been attached to the high ceiling several hundred painted filled water balloons began to plummet towards the now horrified Potions Master who instinctually began to make a rapid dash to get out of the way, pulling his wand out as he went.

A number of the more carefully placed balloons hit the row of armoured suits creating a domino effect until the last suit fell and snatched the wand out of the wizards hand as it went.

Wide eyed the girls watched as the equally wide eyed, and now defenceless, wizard continued to back away from the falling rubber blobs and unwittingly set off the second trip wire.

The wire tightened as the man tried to step backwards and the floor opened up beneath him.

An unnaturally high pitched ‘yelp' from the usually reserved man was heard as the wire wrapped itself around his ankle and hung him upside down over a very long drop towards the bottom floor of the castle.

"Oh shi-"

"Fizzle!"

"Agh!"

"What now!?" cried Angel, looking towards where her companions should have been. To her dismay however the two spots were empty and the only indication of where they might be was the sound of rapidly retreating footsteps down the now brightly coloured corridor and a distressed call of:

"ABORT!! ABORT!!!"

"Wait for me!"

----------

"Oh dear . . ."

"We're sorry Jan . . . We tried our best . . ."

A slim witch with long brown hair and green robes smiled reassuringly to the three panting and pale witches before her. "Don't worry. We'll just try again and again until we succeed in our mission."

"Right on!" the three agreed.

"Besides, this is just the first chapter, plenty of efforts to go yet."

"Right on!"

"So how was Professor Snape with you when you let him down?"

". . . . ."

"You, DID let him down, right?"

". . . . . ."

". . . . . I . . . See . . ." She shook her head slightly. "Well, I'm sure he'll be alright."

". . . ."

------------

In a silent and deserted - yet interestingly coloured- corridor a dark shape swung gently through the air. -The motion was not unlike that of a pendulum on a great ancestral clock, or a rather large bat with its wings folded around it.

Beneath black robes (with bright pink, blue, green and yellow splats all over them) two dark eyes burned into the distance with a heated look that could melt the whole of the Antarctic with a single glance. Someone was going to suffer for this!

-----------

A communal shudder travelled through the room.

"What was that?" asked a dark haired witch with very large chocolate coloured eyes.

"Must be getting cold?" suggested the lead witch a little unsure herself. "Anyway, on with the meeting."

Some more reluctant than others (and some more willing than others) all members of the group dropped the subject and returned their attention to the green clad witch before them.

"Today . . . didn't go quite according to plan . . ."

Three heads dipped and the speaker speeded up her dialogue.

"In result of an unexpected, er, ‘glitch'. But do not be discouraged," she began with new conviction. "As we are not yet beaten! All this calls for is a new plan of action and our continued diligence!"

Her conviction spread as heads and voices nodded and called in increasing volumes of agreement.

---- (After several hours of chatting and planning/scheming) ----

"Tomorrow is another day. Let us get some rest and begin planning options for actions to our next plan in the rise of the next moon. Goodnight everyone and thank you."

As people departed, saying their own personal goodbyes as they went, the lead witch brushed her hair back over her shoulder and sat down in the soft leather chair behind her desk. Perhaps this was going to be harder than they thought?

Sighing she picked up a piece of parchment. A magical quill had written detailed notes on all that had been discussed during that nights meeting. Next week's decided plan had been circled in green ink.

"Hmmm. This should be . . . interesting."