𝙮𝙤𝙪 || 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧: 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐬

You purposefully avoided Hermione, Harry and Ron for the next few days. You didn't go down to Hagrid's cabin for a visit either and forced yourself to study for the final exams.

Evening after evening, you tried to memorize every lesson as much as you can with your roommates. They were extremely helpful and patient, especially Delilah, who had an aptitude for Potions. But that doesn't mean you were going to grow complacent just because they were teaching you.

You woke up especially early one morning, your nose already buried in your History of Magic notes as you went past the common room and into the passageway.

A few students were already present in the Great Hall for breakfast. The scene would have looked normal, if it weren't for the fact that they were all gathered around the hourglasses displaying each houses' points. You drop your notes on the Hufflepuff table before nearing them.

"Hi, Percy," you greeted the redhead as you spot him among the crowd.

He turns to face you. "Oh. Hello."

"What's going on?"

Percy's eyebrows furrow at your question, before he looks at Gryffindor's hourglass again. "We suddenly got one hundred and fifty points less today."

You follow his perplexed gaze. Sure enough, Gryffindor had lost points and Slytherin was now in first place. How did that even happen?

"That's odd," a Ravenclaw piped up. "I could have sworn it wasn't like that during yesterday's supper."

"Great. Slytherin's in the lead again."

"How are they going to win the House Cup now? I'm getting sick of seeing green every year."

"Maybe it's made a mistake?"

One theory after another left the lips of worried students. It wasn't until the Great Hall was lively with more people did the news finally got around.

"Harry lost them a hundred and fifty points?" You ask, incredulous. You entirely forget about the roll halfway into your mouth as you looked at Delilah.

"They say Potter, Longbottom and Granger got caught sneaking around in the middle of the night," she said, frowning. "Thanks to them, Slytherin will win the House Cup."

You look over at the Gryffindor table. They were shooting nasty glares at Harry, Hermione, and even at poor Neville, who you could see was shaking in fear from where you were seated.

Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were angry at them. They had been hoping Slytherin wouldn't win this year and now that chance was ruined because of them. A hundred and fifty points lost was hard to swallow, so you understand where their resentment came from.

Even you find yourself glaring at them sometimes. You knew they weren't just sneaking around at midnight for laughs. It had something to do with that Philospher's Stone. It had to be.

You find yourself approaching Neville when you found him sulking around the greenhouses to question him.

He was both shocked and relieved you had talked to him. "You're not mad at me?"

"Oh, believe me, I am, but for completely different reasons. And not at you, Neville," you added when he started to sweat. "Why did you even go out at midnight?"

"I heard Malfoy talking about catching Harry with a dragon," he said, looking sad. "I was going to warn them, but Professor McGonagall said Harry only did that to lure me and Malfoy out."

You were a little surprised that this wasn't about the Philosopher's Stone. Still, a dragon? If you knew anyone who loved creatures of all shapes and sizes, no matter if it were dangerous or not...