The Tenth Weasley

Chapter 13

*Chapter 13*

Neville was curled up on the floor , fast asleep, but jolted awake suddenly as we approached.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours. I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."

"Keep your voice down Neville!. The password's 'Pig-Snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's  gone off somewhere." I replied.

"How's your arm?" said Harry.

"Fine," said Neville, showing us his perfectly normal arm. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute.

"Good - well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"

"Don't leave me!" said Neville, rushing to stand on his feet, desperate for us to not leave him. "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past here twice already."

Ron looked at his watch and the furiously glared at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, probably with a comment she thought was witty but was actually rather annoying, but abruptly shut it after Harry hissed at her to stay quiet and beckoned us all forward.

We flitted along the corridors, lit with strips moonlight streaming in from the high windows. At every turn there was always a possibility that we would run into Filch or Mrs Norris and this realization set me on edge, fortunately we were lucky. When the entrance to the trophy room was in sight we sped up the staircase to the third floor and tiptoed towards it.

Malfoy and Crabbe were not there when we entered. The crystal trophy cases that towered around us shone when the strips of moonlight hit them. Cups, shields, plates and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. We edged along the walls in a line ,careful to remain silent whilst doing so, always watching the door and waiting for Malfoy and Crabbe to enter. I stood and waited with my wand drawn just in case anything happened. As the minutes went by so did the chance that Malfoy and Crabbe were actually going to turn up.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made us all jump. Harry and I had our wands raised defensively, fully expecting Malfoy to saunter through the door and attack us with the element of surprise on his side. Then we heard someone speak and my heart dropped when I came to the realisation that it was not Malfoy but someone else entirely.    

" Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

It was Filch talking to Mrs.Norris. Startled, Harry waved madly at us to follow him as quickly as possible out of the room and away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when we heard Filch enter the trophy room, in search for us.

"They're in here somewhere," we heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

"This way!" Harry mouthed to us and, terrified, we crept down the down a long gallery full of suits of armour, obediently behind him. We could hear Filch and his muttering growing closer and gaining on us rather quickly. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run - he tripped, of course, and pulled Ron down with him, right into a suit of armour.

Time seemed to stop as the suit fell towards the floor yet the deafening clanging and crashing following the fall successfully restored it again, also managing to wake up the whole castle in the process. 

"RUN!" I yelled, no longer caring about keeping quiet and inconspicuous , and the five of us sprinted down the gallery, not looking back for even one second to see if Filch was following or not - we swung around the doorpost and dashed down the corridors that never seemed  to end, Harry in the lead with seemingly no idea which way we should be running. We ripped through a tapestry and found ourselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and eventually came out near our Charms classroom, which was thankfully miles away from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering. I had collapsed on the floor and attempted to regain my breath that I had been out of for the previous ten minutes or so. At that point, I would have happily laid on the cold stone floor and never moved again.

"I - told - you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest. "I - told - you."

"We've got to get back to the Gryffindor Tower," said Ron.

"And quickly," I added.

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realise that, don't you? He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

That same idea has dawned on my earlier when we were running from Filch. Malfoy was never going to be there, all he wanted was Harry gone, and what better way to do it than angering him then tricking him. If his plan had been successful I could only imagine the amount of gloating and ego-boosting that would have went on at breakfast the next morning.

"Let's go."

We should have known it was never going to be that simple. We had barely gotten ten paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of the classroom in front of us.

It was Peeves. He caught sight of us and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackled at the idea. Peeves and I had made a sort of alliance over the weeks I had been in Hogwarts, I didn't intervene in his prank on unsuspecting victims and I was never that unsuspecting victim, it was working in my favor up until then but I could see that nothing was going to stop him from revealing our whereabouts.

"Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should I tell Filch, I should," announced Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glistened with mischief. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," snapped my short-tempered twin, taking a swipe at Peeves, effectively angering Peeves further and sealing our fate.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Oh great.