The Boys Who Lived | The Philosopher's Stone | (Hermione X Male Reader)

Chapter 15: The Forbidden Forest

Things couldn't have been worse.

They waited in silence in Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor after Filch had taken them there. Hermione was shaky. Each one of the excuses, alibis and outrageous cover-up stories chasing each other through Y/N's brain was weaker than the one before it. He was unable to see how they could escape trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they possibly have forgotten the Cloak and been so stupid?

They had no business being in the tallest Astronomy tower, which was off-limits except for classes, and creeping around the school in the middle of the night, Professor McGonagall would not accept any excuse. They might as well pack their luggage already if Norbert and the Invisibility Cloak were included.

Y/N believed that the situation couldn't possibly get worse. But he was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

"Harry! Y/N!" Neville burst out, as soon as he saw the other three. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag-"

In an attempt to silence Neville, Harry and Y/N aggressively shook their heads, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She towered over the four of them and appeared more likely to breathe fire than Norbert.

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up the Astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. As still as a statue, she was gazing at her slippers.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," Professor McGonagall said. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"

Neville appeared shocked and saddened, Y/N caught his eye and tried to reassure him in an unspoken manner that this wasn't true. Y/N realised how much it must have cost poor, bumbling Neville to try and find them in the dark and warn them.

"I'm disgusted," Professor McGonagall said. "Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Ms. Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Y/N, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All four of you will receive detentions - yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous - and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry gasped - they would lose the lead that Y/N had gained in the most recent Quidditch match.

"Fifty points each," Professor McGonagall said, breathing heavily through her long pointed nose.

"Professor - please -"

"You can't -"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

Two hundred points were lost. Gryffindor fell to last as a result. They eliminated Gryffindor's prospects of winning the House Cup in a single night. Y/N felt his stomach sink. How on earth could they possibly make up for this?

Y/N was awake the whole night. For what felt like hours, he could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow. Y/N and Harry were at a loss for words to comfort him. They were aware that Neville shared their dread of dawn. When the rest of Gryffindor learned what they had done, what would happen?

The Gryffindors strolling by the large hourglasses the following day that tallied the house points initially believed there had been an error. How was it possible that they now had two hundred fewer points than yesterday? Then word spread that the two famous first-years, Y/N and Harry Potter, had lost all those points along with a few other stupid first-years.