Together (A Harry Potter love story) 1

53

MILLIES POV

After dinner the four of us sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered me; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to me anymore, after all. This was the first night I hadn't been upset by it. Mione was skimming through all her notes and Harry and Ron were sitting together silently on the other side of the room. I sat in an armchair by the fire, flicking my wand light on and off; "lumos" "nox" "lumos" ...

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed. Lee was the last to go, stretching and yawning, and so Harry followed behind him to retrieve his invisibility cloak.

"We'd better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all four of us," said Harry, walking back down the dormitory stairs. "If Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own-"

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd be making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," Harry said, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at our guilty faces.

"You're going out again."

No, no, no," said Mione. "No, we're not. Why don't you go back to bed, Neville?"

I glanced at the grandfather clock by the door. We couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing to Fluffy.

"You can't go out," said Neville. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

You don't understand," Harry said. "This is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.

"I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll - I'll fight you!"

"Neville," Ron exploded. "Get away from that hole and don't be an idiot-"

"Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don't think you should be breaking anymore rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not us," said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."

He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor, who leapt out of sight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his fists and glancing at me. "I'm ready!"

"Do something," Harry hissed to me.

"Yes, Sir." I rolled my eyes, but stepped forward.

"Neville," I said, "I'm really, really sorry about this."

I raised my wand.

"Petrificus totalus!" I cried, pointing it at Neville.
Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board.
I ran to him. His jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at us in horror.

"What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.

"It's the full body-bind," Mione said. "We haven't done it in class yet - how did you know how to do it, Mills?"

I straightened up again.

"I didn't," I muttered, staring at the floor. It's like my brain had worked for itself. I had never even heard of this spell before. The other three looked at me in shock for a moment, before Mione walked forward, grabbing my hand reassuringly as she passed.

"Sorry, Neville," she said miserably.

"I'm so sorry," I said, glancing back at him.

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," said Harry.

"You'll understand later," said Ron, as he stepped over him and, together, we pulled on the invisibility cloak.

But leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen. In my nervous state, every statues shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves sweeping down on us.

At the foot of the first set of stairs, I spotted Mrs Norris skulking near the top.

"Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered in my ear. I shook my head, grinning. As we climbed carefully around her, Mrs Norris turned her lamp-like eyes on us, but didn't do anything.

We didn't meet anyone else until we reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

"Who's there?" He said suddenly as we climbed towards him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know your there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at us. "Should call Filch, I should, if somethings a-creeping around unseen."

"Peeves," Harry suddenly said, in a hoarse whisper. "The bloody baron has his reasons for being invisible."

I beamed at him, and he returned it with a wink. My smile dropped as I pretended to be annoyed at him.

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot above the stairs.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake - I didn't see you - of course, I didn't, your invisible - forgive old Peevsie, his little joke, Sir."

"I have business here, Peeves," croaked Harry. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, Sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."

And he scooted off.

"Brilliant, Harry!" whispered Ron.

A few seconds later, we were there, outside the third floor corridor - and the door was already ajar.