An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Twenty-Two

A/N: Okay, here's the regular update! The beginning of this chapter is happening before the bonus chapter and the end of this chapter is happening like directly after. Hopefully it'll all make sense when you read it; we're starting on Halloween and Tony got the letter from the school in the evening (on New York time) of November second.

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After the initial shock of Peeve's announcement wore off, Professor Dumbledore rounded up all the Gryffindors and sent us back down to the Great Hall. A few minutes later, we were joined by everyone from the other houses, until every student in the school was standing in the same room, looking varying degrees of tired, confused, annoyed, and afraid.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," announced Professor Dumbledore once everyone was assembled. McGonagall and Flitwick were busy locking down all the entrances and exits as he spoke. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall, and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge."

Percy, who was standing right next to Dumbledore, puffed up like a bird that was showing off its feathers. Dumbledore addressed his next words specifically to Percy, which only made him look even more smug.

"Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately. Send word with one of the ghosts." Dumbledore paused, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."

He trailed off, and with a wave of his hands the four long tables flew to the edges of the room. They were quickly replaced with hundreds of plushy purple sleeping bags, definitely enough for all the students in the Hall.

"Sleep well," he said finally, closing the big wooden doors and locking them behind him.

As soon as the doors shut, everyone started talking again. All the other houses wanted to know exactly what had happened, and most of the Gryffindors were happily retelling the story.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy, trying to be heard over the noise. "Come on now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

"C'mon, let's go set up a little area for the eight of us," I said, leading the way towards a few sleeping bags on the right side of the Hall. I wasn't sure how I felt about that whole 'lights out in ten minutes' policy, but we might as well claim our spot before anyone else.

"This is absolutely insane!" exclaimed Angelina as we moved eight sleeping bags into a loose circle. "Sirius Black got into the castle! And he came to our dorms!"

"Of course he did!" exclaimed George. "He's trying to kill Harry, isn't he?"

Everyone quieted down at the mention of that, and we finished settling in to our sleeping bags in silence.

"This is literally so ridiculous," I finally said, sitting with my legs crossed. "I thought wizard school was going to be less dangerous than life with the Avengers."

"And instead it's more?" asked Fred, looking sympathetic.

I thought about it for a second. "Honestly, no. This is probably about the same danger level as home. Still though, it would've been nice to have a break."

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Despite everything I'd already told them, I guess the idea that I regularly lived with murderers trying to break into my house to kill me or my dad or whoever was still pretty weird. I didn't feel like trying to explain further, though, so I didn't. Instead, I flagged down Percy, who had been walking through the rows of students trying to get people to settle down for bed.