Kassandra Bauer and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)

Chapter 16: We're not playing games anymore.

There was not a single Gryffindor student who slept that night. The only way they were getting any sleep was if Hypnos himself came down and told us to go to sleep. We were all too alive with worry. But throughout the next day, if security was tight before. It was nothing compared to that same next day. Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Black. And Filch, well, he was busy boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the halls to mouse holes.

The only good thing that came out of it was that Cadogan had been fired. The Fat Lady was back. And there was much rejoicing. And she only agreed to do it if she was given extra protection. Which was granted in the form of a bunch of surly security trolls who had been hired to guard her. They paced the halls in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

Harry looked at the statue of this one eyed witch on the third floor. "This is how I've been getting to Hogsmeade through Honeydukes." He explained to me. We were in luck too. It looked unguarded and unblocked. "Fred and George were right. We're still the only ones who know about it." Now Harry could still go to Hogsmeade.

 Ron in the meantime, had become a celebrity. People seemed to be paying more attention to him than to Harry, He seemed to be relishing in the attention it brought him, and he was more than happy to retell the story to anyone who would listen, even going as far as to tell people how he met Anubis. And also something about twelve inch long knives and Sirius Black's tattered appearance. 

I'd tell you what he was going on about, but I won't. See... Ron tends to be a bit dramatic. And that's coming from me. A Greek.

"You're not even telling the story right!" Anubis scolded Ron as he went on to telling the students about what had happened.

"Why, though?" Ron asked to Harry as a group of Second Year Girls who had been listening to his chilling tale departed. "Why did he run?"

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Sirius Black." Ron answered. 

"And for that matter, if he was after Harry, why go after Ron's bed?" I asked. 

"You think that if he killed me, he would get the power of Anubis?" Ron asked.

"That's not how that works." Anubis answered.

"Well how does it work?" I asked. Egyptian Gods and their powers were strange.

"Maybe Black knew that he had a job getting back out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up. He doesn't have the same advantages like the Shadow of Nyx did." Ryan suggested.

That was another thing. The Shadow of Nyx had fled. But I lived with the thought that they would be back. 

"Even the Shadow of Nyx would have an even more difficult time getting in now." Harry said. 

"He'd probably have to kill the whole house to get back to the portrait hole... then he would've met the teachers... Sirius." Ryan added.

This left us with more questions than answers. We've now got so many security measures. Next time, the Auror Department in the Ministry might as well move in to Hogwarts. 

It had been two days since that incident. And Neville. Our favorite underdog, had received the worst of it. McGonagall slammed the foot down on him. And she slammed it hard. He was completely disgraced. First, McGonagall had banned Neville from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him detention, and forbade all of us to give him the password to Gryffindor House. He would have to wait outside the Common Room every night for somebody to let him in, while those security trolls leered unpleasantly at him. I know because I let him in once.