The Children Who Lived and The Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Fifteen - Detention in the Forest.

Things couldn't have been worse. Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Nellie and Harry were holding hands.

Gone was the excitement for learning about dragons. Instead, excuses, alibis and wild cover-up stories chased each other around Nellie's brain, each more feeble than the last. She couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. There was no reason on Earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for them being out of bed this late at night. Add Norbert and the Invisibility Cloak, and they might as well be packing their bags already.

Nellie's heart dropped when Professor McGonagall appeared. She was leading Neville to stand next to them.

"Nellie!" Neville burst out the moment he saw the others. "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—"

Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," Professor McGonagall said. "You fed Draco Malfoy a story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it too?"

Nellie grabbed Neville's hand and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true because Neville was looking both stunned and hurt. Nellie felt terrible, she knew what it must have cost him to try and find them in the dark, to warn them.

"I'm disgusted," Professor McGonagall said. "Five students out of bed in one night! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Potters, I thought Gryffindor meant more to the two of you than this."

At McGonagall's words, Nellie began to cry. She hadn't meant to get Neville in trouble, and she didn't want to disappoint her professor. She felt that it was her fault as it was her idea to write Charlie in the first place. Harry wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her arm, trying to sooth her. When McGonagall saw her crying, her face softened before she continued.

"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. Fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry gasped

"Each," Professor McGonagall said, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose. "I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

At this, Nellie began to cry even harder, not stopping even when she and Hermione made it to the dorms and got into bed. She wanted to stay with Harry, but it was decided that they better just sleep in their own bed for fear of getting into more trouble. This decision made her almost hyperventilate as she sobbed. She had been told many times by the Dursleys that they were ashamed of her and her brother, but the feeling that came when McGonagall said it tore at her chest. She felt like she couldn't breathe, and she wondered if her friends and brother felt the same way.

Nellie didn't sleep all night. It was as if she could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow, and she really could hear Hermione cry for what seemed like hours. When the first spark of the sunrise began lighting up the girls dormitory, she got out of bed and made her way to the common room. Almost immediately, Harry came down the stairs and pulled her close as the two of them cried. Eleanor mumbled incoherently as Harry rubbed her back, soothing and reassuring her. He told her that he loved her and couldn't be more proud to be her brother, and that their friends felt the same way.

Later that morning, Hermione and Nellie went to go find Neville. He was near the back of the common room, still sniffling.

"We're so sorry Neville!" Hermione cried as they sat down beside him.