A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. 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." Lilith couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering. She frowned at the girl, thinking of how Annabeth would join them instead of scolding them.
"And you! Why are you encouraging them!" Hermione exclaimed, point at Lilith.
"I'm making sure they don't get into trouble!" Lilith defended herself.
"Come on," he said to Ron. 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 your-selves, 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."
Lilith disliked the girl at the moment, something she's never done too often. But the way the girl was bragging, and Lilith actually thought that Hermione was the one being selfish, thinking that they were going to lose the points Hermione earned.
"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." They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.
"I'm coming with you," she said. "You are not."
"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." Lilith couldn't believe her ears at the moment, how selfish of her! The fact that she would blame them for something she did on her own, she was the one who decided to follow them!
"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.
"Neville!" Lilith exclaimed, running over to the boy to help him off the ground.
"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."
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𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏
FantasyLilith Jade grew up with two loving parental figures, but for her own safety, she was sent to live with a rich adoptive family. However, she often visit her father, or the other way round. Her father wanted the best for her, and to keep her safe, he...