Black Soul- George Weasley

The One With The Midnight Duel: Part 1

Astraea waited till 11 pm to walk out of the girl's dormitory and went down to the common room. Yes, she was still upset with Harry, but she wouldn't let him walk into a trap. At least not alone. When she reached the common room, she saw two figures sitting next to the fire. 

"See Freddie", George said. "I told you she would sneak out".

Astraea rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure when you sneak out to protect Harry, you are safe", Fred said. "George's idea. He wanted to be here for you, I just like breaking rules".

George slapped Fred on the back on his head and Astraea blushed.

"Shh someone's coming". They saw Hermione come down and sit on a chair, still unaware of their presence since they were on the floor.

Then Harry and Ron came down. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry." A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.

 "You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

"Ohhh Prefect Percy", Fred said startling the trio.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Ron.

"Could ask you the same", replied Astraea. Harry couldn't look at her without feeling guilty.

"If you, too, are going to try and stop us-"

"Stop you?" asked Astraea laughing. "Oh no, we are here to make sure you don't get caught, hurt, killed or expelled. Right boys?"

The twins nodded and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come on then," Harry told the lot. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole. Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

 "Go away."

 "All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"

 But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.

 "That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."

"Were we that mean to each other?" Fred asked Astraea.

Astraea gave him a nasty look and ignored. Then, they both laughed it off.

 They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.

"Change of heart?" Astraea asked her.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

 "You are not", said Harry.

"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."

 "You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.

"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. I heard something." It was a sort of snuffling.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark. It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

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

"Poor kid", muttered Astraea.

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere", said Ron.

"How's your arm?" said Harry.

 "Fine," said Neville, showing them. "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, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

 Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously 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."

"There is safety in numbers", muttered Astraea. "Though I doubt this is the case".

Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward. They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room. Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.

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

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the others to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

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

 "This way!" Astraea mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. "We know some hideouts, but they are far away. We need to be quite".

They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor. The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

 "RUN!" Harry yelled, and the lot sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

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Editing!!

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