𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓷 𝓞𝓷𝓮

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

THINGS COULDN'T HAVE been worse.

Mr. Filch took Chloe and Hermione down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Both girls were was trembling.

Excuses, alibis, and wild cover-up stories rapidly chased each other around Chloe's brain, each more feeble than the last. She couldn't see how she and Hermione were going to get out of trouble that time. They were cornered. How could they have possibly been so stupid as to forget the cloak?

There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for Chloe and Hermione being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak, and they might as well pack their bags already.

Had Chloe thought that things couldn't have been worse? Very much. But she turned out to be wrong.

When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Daniel Page and Neville Longbottom.

"Chloe!" Neville burst out, the moment he saw the two Gryffindor girls. "We were trying to find you and warn you that we heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag-"

Hermione's eyes widened, but Neville shut up when Daniel elbowed his arm and hissed, "Ssshh! What'd I tell you about subtlety, Longbottom?"

McGonagall looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the Gryffindors and said, "I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione ever failed to answer a teacher's question. Whilst Chloe nervously fiddled with a thick strand of her curly red hair, Hermione stared at her slippers as still as a statue.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," said McGonagall. The girls hesitated. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom and Page here heard the story and believed it, too?" McGonagall asked.

Daniel felt obligated to point out that he didn't believe the seemingly ludicrous dragon story, but he just wanted to get Neville and the girls back to the Gryffindor common room before any points were taken. McGonagall's fierce look was the only thing that was keeping his patronising mouth shut.

Chloe and Hermione caught the eyes of Daniel and Neville. Chloe tried to assure them without words that it wasn't entirely true. Neville looked stunned and hurt, whilst Daniel clearly wasn't interested.

Chloe frowned - she knew what it must have cost Daniel and Neville to try and find them in the dark.

"I'm disgusted," said McGonagall. "Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You two, Miss Granger and Miss Potter, I thought you had more sense and I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All four of you will receive detentions- yes, you and Mr. Page, too, Mr. Longbottom. Nothing, I repeat, nothing gives a student the right to walk about the school at night. Especially these days, it's very dangerous. Therefore, as punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken." She decided, firmly.

"Fifty?" Chloe gasped - they would lose the lead, the lead she'd won in the last Quidditch match. "Each," said McGonagall, breathing heavily.