A silver and green lion

Chapter 9: The forbidden forest

Things couldn't have been worse. Filch brought them to McGonagall's office where they had to wait for Hermione's head of house to arrive. The girl was trembling all over her body and Harry put a comforting arm around her. All kind of excuses were playing in his head but none of them were good enough. Why had they been so stupid to leave the cloak upstairs? There was no way McGonagall would accept them being out of bed. And in the astronomy tower! That one was out of bounds except for classes. A sound caught Harry's attention. He had thought things couldn't get worse but that was before he spotted Neville at McGonagall's side.

"Hermione! I wanted to warn you! I overheard Ron saying he wanted to bust you. And that you and Harry had a..." A stern look of the girl made him shut up, but McGonagall had spotted it.

"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!" Hermione started to sob, and Harry quickly tried to ease her.

"I'm... I'm so sorry!" She brought out between sobs. "It's just... Harry and I..." She sobbed again. "Harry had asked me out." The raven boy looked shocked at the girl in his arms. This was the second time he saw her lying. "He knows how hard it has - has been for me in Gryffindor." Real tears were streaming down her cheeks and soaking his shirt. "He thought it would cheer me up to watch the stars so I could get my thought off... off the bullying." She looked up at McGonagall with red, puffy eyes. "We didn't want to break the rules but... but they don't go easy on 'traitors'."

"I understand miss Granger. Being friends with the Slytherins must be hard for you." The elder woman's face had softened. "But you should've come to me instead. Now I can't do anything else than giving you all a detention. Yes including you, mister Longbottom. Although you just wanted to help miss Granger, you were out after curfew. But I shall not duck points."

"Thank... thank you." Hermione said with a trembling voice.

The next day, the news of Gryffindor losing 60 points in one night spread quickly. The Slytherins gladly informed the other houses of who was responsible for their victory. No one, not even the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, were talking to the three Gryffindors. Apparently Weasley had pulled his two friends down with him.
Hermione and Harry were sitting in the library, informing Blaise and Theo all about the happening from the former night.

"And she just down right lied, with sobbing and all!" Harry boasted.

"Sounds like you are sitting in the wrong house." Blaise said impressed. "Good think-work, Granger." He complimented. The girl blushed and looked down at her revision. A compliment from Blaise was rare. The boy chuckled when he noticed the crimson shade on her cheeks and made her blush even more.

"What's up, Harry?" The twins greeted them, not being in their regular, cheery mood.

"I guess Ron overheard about your little adventure." Fred spoke.
"And that's why we are losing now? George ended.

"Yeah, but it could have been worse." Theo said cheery. "If Hermione hadn't been such a good actress you would have lost even more." The twins looked down on the blushing brunette in surprise, a proud glint being visible as well.

"Wonderful actress huh?" Fred said smirking. "Good to know."

"But how did your little adventure end?" George asked.

"We dropped of Norbert but got caught on our way back." Harry told them. "Filch brought us to McGonagall and Hermione talked us out of losing points with tears and all." The girl didn't look up to meet the twins their eyes, but the whistling Fred did couldn't been ignored. The twins stayed a bit longer, talking about the finals that were coming before they decided they would do something themselves.

The weeks that followed Harry and his friends spend studying in the library till curfew. They tried to get various ingredients for the most difficult potions and all various charms and hexes they had learned that year to stamp in their brain. They hadn't much time to break their heads over the philosopher's stone and almost forgot about it until one afternoon when Theo and Harry were walking back to their common room. Blaise and Hermione were still studying - Blaise helping Hermione out with D.A.D.A. She was the brightest witch they knew but Blaise was just a bit better in it. Theo and Harry found it very funny that those two were bounding over schoolwork. They had been joking about it when suddenly... they heard someone whimpering from a classroom up ahead. The two boys looked at each other and quickly went closer. It was Quirrel.

"No - no - not again please - " It sounded as if someone was threatening him, so they quickly walked closer. "All right - all right - " They heard Quirrel sob. Only a moment later their professor came out of the classroom, straightening his turban. They waited till he took off to see in the classroom that was totally empty by now.

"I hate to say..." Harry muttered. "But Quirrel is losing his mind."

"You're right." Theo muttered. "I think we need to go and see Hermione and Blaise. I'm sure Snape's not the one who's after the stone." Harry's eyes went big when he got what his friend meant, turning on his heals immediately.

"What are we waiting for!" He said. They quickly ran back to the library. What they saw there stunned them like a stupefy. Hermione and Blaise were sitting very closely on the couches on one of the couches, laughing together.