Yeah, things really didn't go according to Dumbledore's plan, or perhaps it went perfectly. He had to know that making something forbidden was a good way to get everyone curious enough to try to figure out why. There had to be more to it than that. The headmaster isn't an idiot and that meant that there was another dimension to the forbidden corridor. He could have just warded the corridor and not said anything. Only students that were fifth years or higher would have even detected a ward made by any competent wizard let alone Dumbledore. Or he could have provided a false reason like it being cursed or something and make people scared of it. No, he purposefully wanted everyone to be curious about it and be vague about the danger.
Harry slowly walked towards the corridor. The castle was quiet and only his footsteps were the only sound reverberating throughout the corridor. When he finally reached the corridor, he sensed something odd, "Huh. The song is odd. There is a ward but it's not stopping me from entering. It's not really repulsive, just there, I guess. Probably detects something, but I can't hear a warning trigger."
There was no harm in getting through all things considered. Dozens of students had done so, and they were fine. Harry steeled himself and took a step inside.
Immediately, the ward flared, and its song intensified. It was looking for something in Harry, and afterwards, it just let him go through. The torches around the corridor started to light up and there was nothing there but another wooden locked door by the end of it. Harry slowly walked, trying to hear any other song. There was only one by the end of the door, but it was far more complex than the previous one.
Harry didn't really get to study wards all that much, the same reason he didn't really get to study alchemy. They needed a foundation in Runes that he lacked, and for all his cleverness and insight in magic, Runes was a very time intensive field to learn. It would take months to become adequate in a single runic language, let alone the countless ones that are required to specialize in these fields. He was going to do it eventually, but Harry had too much fun discovering wand magic to just focus on learning what was basically a new language from scratch.
Oh, Harry knew enough to understand the basics of warding, but he didn't really have enough time to manipulate them using his magical hearing. Still, Harry was adamant about seeing the infamous Cerberus at the very least. He pointed his wand at the door and muttered, 'Alohomora'.
The door clicked and opened up, and the ward's song flared in intensity. Harry slowly walked forwards, and he finally understood what the ward was doing. It had two distinct songs, one that felt protective, and another that was slowly changing. It was becoming more familiar; Harry could tell it was at the back of his mind. Oh, it was his song. The ward was analyzing his magic. What a wonderful and curious piece of magic. Harry, of course, chose to trick it, and slightly change his song to resemble Blaise's. It was probably a bad thing to do, but he was most familiar with it, having hung out with him the most out of his friends. His technique was more of an illusion than actually changing his magic. Because it was an illusion of a magical song superposing his own. It wasn't really something he had tried before, but it should have been theoretically possible.
When it was done, the ward fully assimilated the false magical signature and settled down. It sent a copy of the fake signature to the first ward, which also flared. Harry then slowly walked past the door and was face to face with the giant three-headed dog.
It was far more intimidating than he imagined. It was bigger than the troll and was scowling at him. Cerberus were magical dogs that have the best magical resistance in a magical creature. It was literally impervious to magic. You couldn't put a spell on it, be it protective or attacking. They were also one of the few creatures that are immune to the killing curse, but that protection didn't hold into their fur. To defeat a Cerberus, you had to do it physically, which wasn't really most wizards' strong point.
It was a fantastic beast to use to protect an object. Practically no one would have been able to get past it, all things considered, and it did make sense why Dumbledore would let it attack it.
Harry slowly walked towards the rising dog and spoke up, "Don't worry, I'm not trying to get past you. I just wanted to see you."
Immediately the three heads stopped and focused on Harry. So, they understood human speech, "I have heard a lot about your kind and when I knew that you were in the castle, I was just curious."
Harry wasn't even lying; he could hear the wards on the trap door, and they were extremely complex and very loud, which meant that it was very powerful, and far above anything he could deal with. He only came here because a Cerberus was a rare creature, and it was intelligent enough that Harry wanted to hear its magic.
"I have to say, you are magnificent," Harry muttered.
That was true. Harry stopped and ignored all of the wards' noise and just listened to the Cerberus. It was, by far, the most complex symphony he had ever heard. It had so many layers and deepness. It was the most magical thing he had heard so far. There was loyalty, playfulness, and nobility involved. And then that changed with a feeling of familiarity and for the lack of a better term, souls.
It was then that he realized what was happening, "You're not a being of flesh and blood, are you?"
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