Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

60 - G & N

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. We all knew that the castle was being searched again, so the whole House stayed up in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black and my father had been caught.

I spent the majority of my time being awake dealing with my head spinning. I felt like I had so many questions but none of the answers to them. I'd yet to figure out how exactly my father and Sirius Black had now managed to get into the castle two times, and I especially didn't know their motive behind their most recent visit. Why was Black standing over Ron with a knife and not Harry, if Harry was the one he was supposedly after? Why'd my dad appear to just be watching me instead of trying to kill me or Jasper?

Eventually, Professor McGonagall came back to Gryffindor Tower at dawn and informed us the two men had escaped yet again. Throughout the rest of that day, everywhere us students went we saw signs of tighter security: the front doors were being trained to recognize Black and my dad, Filch was boarding up tiny cracks and holes, and Sir Cadogan had been replaced by the Fat Lady again (who was now accompanied by a bunch of security trolls hired to guard her).

The following days after that, people picked up their favorite hobby of talking about my brother and me behind our backs again, but for once there was someone else who was the subject of discussion even more so than us— Neville. He'd become a total disgrace by everyone at Hogwarts, not just fellow students. McGonagall especially was so furious with him that she banned him from all future Hogsmeade trips, gave him detention, and forbade anyone to give him the password into the tower. His grandmother was livid as well— she'd sent him a nasty Howler one morning at breakfast, causing an uproar in the Great Hall and turning his chubby cheeks the reddest I'd ever seen them.

Gradually, though, things quieted down a bit as time went on, especially after a week had passed. Now it was Saturday and there happened to be a Hogsmeade trip today which, of course, stole everybody's attention and was all anyone could think about.

I wished I could join my friends while they went to the village, but I'd done a lot of thinking with Jasper and we both agreed it probably wouldn't be smart for us to sneak out again. We'd narrowly avoided being caught last time as it was, but also this time around there wasn't snow hanging in the air or large jackets we could wear to help keep us from being spotted by people— or, better yet, our father.

Harry had been convinced by Ron to go, but he was taking his Invisibility Cloak to ensure his safety and was going to remain under it the whole time. I suppose three people could technically could fit underneath it, but it wouldn't be much fun for Jasper and me to be squeezed against Harry for the whole day.

So, unfortunately, we stayed behind and sadly watched our friends set off to Hogsmeade without us after breakfast concluded. But at least we were promised surprises when they got back. George, for one, told me he was only going to go for half the day and then return to me with tons of candy for us to share in the evening.

After our friends and the rest of the school had left, I headed back up to the seventh floor with Jasper. It seemed almost everyone in Gryffindor had gone to the village today— that, or they were either up in their dormitories or somewhere else in the castle, because no one else was occupying the common room.

Not long after us, Neville returned to Gryffindor Tower too, seeming quite alone. Jasper offered to play a few games with him to keep them both occupied, but I decided to mostly stick to myself today. I thought I might as well seize the rare opportunity I had to enjoy a quiet day around here, so I brought my journal, my quill, and my art supplies down to the common room with me and made good use of the couch in front of the warm fire.

I spent a decent amount of time journaling, finding I actually had quite a bit to write about. I caught up on some of the things that had happened over the last few weeks, making sure to document my times spent with George, my progress in my anti-dementor lessons, and everything that had gone down with my father.