Spellbound → Hermione Granger [1] ✔

I 13 I The Forbidden Forest

~*~

Alexander's feet felt like lead, weighing him down with each step that he took. The evening was cool and the breeze rattled the windows of the corridors they walked down, but his blood was icy and his muscles rigid. He had lost any sense of how long they'd been following Filch; his heart hammered loudly and his brain was short-circuiting with anxious thoughts. Were they going to be expelled? Was Filch taking them to the Headmaster's office? They can't be the only people in Hogwarts who walked the castle at night. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the Cloak? There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept their being out of bed and sneaking around the school in the dead of night, let alone being in the Astronomy Tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. We might as well be packing our bags already, thought Alexander bitterly.

Filch led them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited. Harry didn't look at any of them, his eyes behind the spectacles were staring intensely at one spot on the floor. Hermione sat next to Alexander, and he could feel her trembling. His heart ached as her bottom lip quivered and her soulful, brown eyes misted with tears. She must have been worried to death. Her biggest nightmare since coming to Hogwarts came true. Taking a deep breath, he gave her elbow a faint squeeze. Alexander wished Eliot were here to give Hermione a more comforting hug. Eliot would know what to do. Alexander was more like his Grandfather when it came to consoling others: awkward and clumsy. Any other time, he would have been delighted to be more like his Grandfather, but right now, it was a hindrance; he longed to make others feel better, he just didn't know how to. However, he must have done a satisfactory job because Hermione gave him a fragile, thin smile. Alexander felt his heart jump and he grinned back. Hermione wrapped her tiny hands around his right elbow, clinging for dear life.

Excuses, alibis, and wild cover-up stories chased each other around Alexander's brain, each more pathetic than the last. They were sleepwalking and had just woken up. No, Professor McGonagall would never believe that. They wanted to stretch their legs by walking around the castle. Even as he thought about it, Alexander realised how weak his excuses sounded. Every other time, he would have thought of a fantastic explanation, but it was something about the night that caused his brain to work slower. He couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered.

The wait was the longest minutes of Alexander's life. His left leg repeatedly vibrated and he constantly ran a hand through his hair. Hermione sniffed every few seconds. Suddenly, her grip around his elbow tightened and she sharply inhaled. Alexander snapped his head around and immediately wished that he hadn't. If he thought the situation was worse before, then someone had truly merde partout. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville. His face was panicked and he was gesturing to Harry.

'Harry!' Neville burst out, the moment he saw them. 'I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag —'