Daisy Potter and the Awesomest Godfather Ever (Book 3, Harry Potter ff)

Chapter 14 - Capture The Flag, Wizard-Style

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. We 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. Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, to tell us that he had yet again escaped.

Everywhere we went next day we saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognise 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 sacked. 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 only agreed to return to her job 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.

I couldn't help noticing that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded and unblocked. I was right in thinking that the Insurgents - now Harry, Ron, and Hermione - and I were the only ones that knew about it.

"D'you reckon we should tell someone?" Harry asked.

"Of course not! How would we be able to get into Hogsmeade illegally, and besides, we'd'be heard if Honeydukes had been broken into." I replied dismissively.

Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than Harry (but not me, I'm still the most popular person in the school lol), and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was happy to tell anyone who asked, what had happened, with a wealth of detail.

"...I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draught...I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down...I rolled over...and I saw him standing over me...like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair...holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches...Shut up Daisy!...and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he scarpered."

"Why, though?" Ron added to Harry and I, as the group of second-year girls who had been listening to his chilling tale departed. "Why did he scarper?"

I had been wondering the same thing. Why had Black, having got the wrong bed, not silenced Ron and proceeded to us twins? Black had proved twelve years ago that he didn't mind murdering innocent people, and this time he had been facing five unarmed boys and one unarmed girl, (well, I did have my powers, but he didn't know that) five of whom were asleep.

"He must've known he'd have a job getting back out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up." Harry said thoughtfully. "He'd've had to kill the whole house to get back through the portrait hole...then he would've met the teachers..."

"But he could've pretended to be one of the boys and pretended to sleep in their bed." I said. "Just slit their throat and climb in."

"Daisy!" Ron looked shocked as Harry pissed himself laughing.

"Yeah, it could've been Ian, his hair's certainly filthy enough..." Harry spluttered, referring to the first year boy.

Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him a detention (which the Insurgents shared with him because we had set half a dozen Fire-Spitting Frogs off in her office) and forbidden anyone to give him the password into the Tower. Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him. None of these punishments, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Black's break-in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast - a Howler.