Trees ||𝐶.𝐴.𝐷.

Chapter 9

a/n: we're gonna pretend that Muffliato wasn't from Halfblood Prince and that it was a widely known spell 🤚
TW: mentions of 💊

Third person POV:

Juniper got out of bed, tying her hair up and grabbing a blanket. She needed to scream, just not in here.

She slowly walked into the common room where she could see the silhouettes of her exhausted friends, all of them trying to cram on the couches and chairs. She tried to slow her breathing so that her whimpers wouldn't be as distracting, failing to do so.

The dark room and the heavy breathing were a disaster in the making. As Juniper tried to pass a table that led to the door, she stubbed her toe, resulting in a string of curse words flying from her mouth on accident. Her eyes widened as someone sitting in one of the chairs stirred, lifting their head.

She quickly dashed to the door, opening it and exiting the common room in one breath.

"La da diiiii do do daaaa..."

Juniper could hear Filch coming in her direction. Her only way out of this was to go back into the common room where she was sure there was someone awake in there. She sighed, turning around only to bump into the air.

"Wha-"

"Juniper!"

All of a sudden, Hermione and Harry's heads pop out of mid air.

"What the-"

"Just get under the cloak!" Hermione aggressively whispers. Juniper follows, confused, standing under the cloak with Harry and Hermione after it was draped over her. Filch then rounded the corner, Mrs. Norris at his heel.

"Hm...I thought I 'eard someone..."

As soon as he was gone, Harry started to whisper. "We need to go back to the common room for a second."

"What? No, someone's awake in there. And what're you guys doing here anyway-"

"We'll explain inside. Now c'mon!" Said Hermione. "What's the door password?"

"Um,push," Said Juniper.

"Push," said Harry, turning to the door. "Nothing happened-"

"No, I mean- you're supposed to push-"

The 16 year old pushed on one of the barrels next to the door and walked in with the other two under the cloak.

"You guys don't have a password?" Asked Harry.

"Not a real password, Dumbledore thinks Hufflepuffs are trustworthy enough to not need one, and can we take this cloak off now?" Asked Juniper.

"Oh," said Hermione. "That's not really safe-"

"Can we just take the cloak off please?" Juniper wasn't in a good mood. She just wanted to go let out a scream after that terrible dream. It had never gotten that far before.

"Oh-" said Harry. "Yeah, of course."

Pulling the cloak off, Juniper took out her wand that she had stashed away in the waistband of her pajamas. "Lumos. Now, why are you two here? You should be asleep."

"You should too," interrupted Harry.

"I have a valid excuse."

Hermione and Harry just gave a shrug and a nod. "Anyways," said Hermione. "We came here to try to figure all this out whilst also comforting you after that dream- well, I did. I just needed Harry's cloak."