Bones

Chapter 6

        Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where we were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.

        "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told us as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."

        Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."

        One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

        "Sleep well," Professor Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him.

        The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.

        "Everyone into their sleeping bags!" Percy shouted. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

        "C'mon," I said to Harry, Ron and Hermione; we seized four sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.

        "Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously.

        "Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," Ron said.

        "It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know," I said as we climbed fully dressed into our sleeping bags and propped ourselves on our elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."

        "I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run," Ron said. "Didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he'd have come bursting in here."

        Hermione shuddered.

        All around us, people were asking one another the same question: "How did he get in?"

        "Maybe he knows how to Apparate," a Ravenclaw said a few feet away, "Just appear out of thin air, you know."

        "Disguised himself, probably," a Hufflepuff fifth year said.

        "He could've flown in," Dean Thomas suggested.

        "Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts, A History?" Hermione said crossly to me, Harry and Ron.

        "Probably," Ron said. "Why?"

        "Because the castle's protected by more than walls, you know," Hermione said. "There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here. And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those Dementors. They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They'd have seen him fly in too. And Filch knows all the secret passages, they'll have them covered..."

        "The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"

        The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, I felt as though I was sleeping outdoors in a light wind.