𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 ── harry potter

x | the quinn protection squad

ACT I — CHAPTER X
Tʜᴇ Qᴜɪɴɴ Pʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ Sǫᴜᴀᴅ

⊱ ────── 𖥔 ✶ 𖥔 ────── ⊰

Things could not have been any worse.

Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor where they sat and waited in silence. Quinn wanted to slap herself for being so forgetful. They forgot the Invisibility Cloak. How could they forget the Invisibility Cloak? The one thing they needed to ensure their safety, and they had forgotten it.

Quinn thought through all the ways that they could get out of this, some sort of excuse, but none were plausible. They couldn't even use her dorm mates and Hermione as alibis like they originally planned because they were caught in the act.

Quinn hadn't realized how badly she was shaking until Harry grabbed ahold of her hand. She looked at him, and he looked at her in a way that said, Everything is going to be okay. Somehow, this made her feel the tiniest bit better.

She immediately felt worse, however, when Professor McGonagall appeared leading Neville.

"Harry!" Neville burst out the moment he saw the other too, "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—"

Both Quinn and Harry were violently shaking their heads in an attempt to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall saw them. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them. Quinn squeezed Harry's hand tighter.

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

"We were stargazing," Quinn blurted out. Stargazing? Where was she going with this?

"You were stargazing?" McGonagall asked, a skeptical look on her face.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To prepare for our Astronomy exam."

This was actually a pretty good excuse, so good that Professor McGonagall seemed to be considering it. Harry was looking between her and Quinn, his brow raised.

"And you felt inclined to study at one in the morning because?"

"That's the only time the stars are out, Professor," Harry answered.

"You couldn't have studied from your own common rooms? Or, better yet, your own dorms?"

"Well then we wouldn't be able to study together," Harry said.

"One could also argue that firsthand experience is the best way to learn," Quinn added. Firsthand experience? In what, looking at the sky?

Professor McGonagall looked between them for a few moments before her face became sterner than usual.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," she 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?"

Quinn looked at Neville, who looked stunned and hurt. Poor Neville, who just wanted to help them.

"Professor, I swear that's not —"

"I do not want to hear another blatant lie from you, Fenwick. I'm disgusted," Professor McGonagall said, "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss Fenwick, well I thought you had a bit more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three 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 and Ravenclaw."