Black Soul- George Weasley

The One With The Break-In

It felt as though they had already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went on all day and well into the night. Astraea, Fred and George ran into one of the secret passages that led to Honeydukes and got all kind of sweets, then ran to the three broomsticks and made Astraea morph and get them bottles of butterbeer. They ran back to the common room and started partying with everyone else.

"Listen", Astraea yelled and everyone stared at her. "What's a party without some music?"

Everyone yelled agreeing and she whipped out her wand and Weird Sisters started playing.

"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina Johnson as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.

"We got our way", George replied as Fred whispered something in Harry's ear.

The party went on and on and through it, Astraea and George were plainly just making out or dancing. The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist that they all go to bed. George went up but Astraea wasn't tired, so she just sat by the fire.

She didn't notice falling asleep, but she was woken up by yelling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She jumped from the couch and saw a figure standing in front of her. 

"Father?" she asked holding her wand towards him.

"I don't have time", he told her. "But I did not do it. Je le jure" (I swear)

He then ran out of the common room and Astraea stood bewildered until Harry came down.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" 

 "I'm telling you, I saw him!" 

 "What's all the noise?" 

 "Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!" 

 A few of the girls had come down their staircase, pulling on dressing gowns and yawning. Boys, too, were reappearing. 

 "Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred Weasley brightly until George nudged him towards a very pale Astraea. They went over and George wrapped him arms around her, she jumped. 

 "Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke. 

 "Perce — Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" 

 The common room went very still. 

 "Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron — had a nightmare —" 

 "I'm telling you —" 

 "Now, really, enough's enough!" 

 Minnie was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around. 

 "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!" 

 "I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare —" 

 "IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!" 

 Professor McGonagall stared at him. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" 

 "Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw —" 

"He is not lying", Astraea said with a shaky voice. "I saw him too"

 Glaring suspiciously at Ron and Astraea, Minnie pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath.  

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" 

 "Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan. 

 There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room. 

 "You — you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But — but the password!" 

 "He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" 

 Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk. 

 "Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?" 

 There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught. Minnie came back at dawn, to tell them that he had again escaped. 

 Throughout the day, everywhere they went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

"Do you think we should tell anyone about the Marauders' Map?" Astraea asked George as they cuddled in the Astronomy Tower.

"You don't expect him coming from Honeydukes", chuckled George.

"What if he knew the passages?" she asked.

"He would have attacked more often", he assured her.

"I need to tell you something", she said sitting up.

"What?" he removed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I saw him twice now", she confessed.

"What?"

"The night he attacked the fat lady I saw him and yesterday too"

"What did he do? Did he hurt you?" he was worried.

"No, he just told me that he didn't do it", she mumbled.

"Do you believe him?"

"I don't know, I don't want to but something is making me believe him"

"Did you read his mind?" he asked her.

"No", he frowned. "Next time I will"

"There is no next time", he said sternly.

"Why?" she whined.

"He might hurt you"

"He could have hurt me on multiple occasions but he didn't", she argued.

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1024 words