The Three Brothers: The Cure

Midnight Excursions

9th May 1992

"Fifty points?" Harry gasped. This was bad. Losing fifty points would nullify the points they'd won for the last Quidditch match.

"Fifty points each," Professor McGonagall flared—her gaze darting between Harry, Hermione, and Neville. "I don't want to hear a single complaint about this. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students," she finished with a scowl on her face.

Harry's heart turned to lead. There was no way they would be able to make up for this.

It had all started when Harry and Hermione had taken Norbert to be smuggled out of the castle. On their way up to the top of the tallest tower, they had heard Malfoy getting caught by Filch for loitering around after curfew. Laughing silently at Malfoy's pleas to the caretaker that there were students smuggling dragons, both Harry and Hermione proceeded to their rendezvous with Charlie Weasley. Once Norbert was safely handed over to Charlie, Harry and Hermione had almost bounced down the stairs in joy—only realizing later that they had left the Invisibility Cloak at the top of the tower.

Professor McGonagall had been waiting down the stairs for any sign of them. Beside her were Malfoy—detained by Filch—and Neville—ho had been out after curfew to warn them of Malfoy's plot. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall had assumed that the story about the dragon smuggling was an obvious lie by Harry and Hermione to get Malfoy in trouble, and that Neville had been caught unaware. Given that they wanted to protect Hagrid, Harry and Hermione silently agreed to Professor McGonagall's accusations. After all, there was no way to know if telling the truth about Norbert would make things better. But Harry had had no idea that the punishment would be this bad. The small consolation was the fact that Malfoy had lost Slytherin fifty points too.

"Now get to bed the four of you," Professor McGonagall snapped, before walking away. Harry, Hermione, and Neville walked their way to Gryffindor Tower without sharing a single word. When they got to the dormitory, Neville didn't give Harry a chance to apologise, drawing the curtains of his four-poster bed shut within moments.

Racked with guilt, Harry found himself unable to sleep all night. He could hear the light sobs coming from Neville's bed, but he didn't know what to say to the poor boy to make it better. And what would happen tomorrow, when the rest of the Gryffindor House would find out? Surely everyone would notice a decrease of a hundred and fifty points?

In one night, all the chances of Gryffindor winning the House Cup had vanished. The older students were not going to be happy.

One thing was certain. Harry pledged to not go meddling around in things that weren't his business.

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22nd May 1992

"So, what do we do Harry?" asked Ron, the light of adventure kindling in his eyes. Harry didn't think his pledge to himself would be put to the test so soon.

He'd just told his friends about what he had overheard. While walking back from the library, he had heard sobs coming from a classroom. When he neared it, he had heard Quirrell's voice pleading with someone.

"No—no—not again, please —"

Harry moved closer to hear to who was threatening him but evidently missed the next exchange. He finally heard Quirrell assenting softly.

"All right—all right —"

Immediately afterwards, Quirrell came rushing out of the classroom, and Harry instinctively dived in to the shadows. The professor straightened his turban as he looked around the corridor before hurriedly walking away.