Sending Norbert Away

The plan went unexpectedly smoothly. With Silas's "help" (he directly used a portal to transport the crate containing Norbert to the top of the Astronomy Tower, sparing Harry and Hermione the trouble of sneaking through the castle under the Invisibility Cloak while carrying a heavy box), Charlie's friends arrived on time and silently took away the rapidly growing Norbert.

However, perhaps sending Norbert away had gone too smoothly, causing Harry and Hermione to let down their guard; or perhaps the late-night chill and tension had muddled their minds—when they hurriedly left the Astronomy Tower, they actually forgot the all-important Invisibility Cloak on the railing at the top!

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had clearly wanted to take advantage of the situation and cause trouble, but Silas's earlier "threat" had indeed worked. Whenever he thought of Silas's cold eyes and those strange red chains, a chill ran through him. He no longer dared to follow Harry and the others so easily, much less sneak out in the middle of the night to catch them breaking curfew. Thus, Malfoy stayed obediently in the Slytherin dormitory that night.

So, when Harry and Hermione came slipping down from the Astronomy Tower in a hurry, empty-handed and without the protection of the Invisibility Cloak, they ran straight into Professor McGonagall, who was patrolling late at night!

Professor McGonagall looked at the two lightly dressed Gryffindor students, who had obviously just come down from the tower, and her face turned livid.

"Mr. Potter! Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall's voice trembled slightly with shock and disappointment. "Curfew ended long ago! What are you doing here? Explain yourselves!"

Harry and Hermione went pale with fright, stammering helplessly as they failed to think of any reasonable excuse. They could hardly say, "We were here to send away an illegally raised dragon," could they?

Professor McGonagall scrutinized them sternly. Since Malfoy had not appeared, she did not, as in the original story, jump to the conclusion that Harry and Hermione had deliberately used a lie about a "dragon" to trick Malfoy and sneak out after curfew. All she saw were two students clearly wandering about in the middle of the night in violation of school rules.

Though she was extremely angry, Professor McGonagall had always held Hermione in high regard and trusted her to some extent. She believed this was more likely an ordinary, thoughtless act of rule-breaking.

In the end, Professor McGonagall made her decision. Her tone was stern and disappointed:

"I do not know what reason you had for going to the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night, but breaking school rules is breaking school rules! Gryffindor will lose twenty points for each of you because of your actions! Furthermore, beginning next week, you will both serve detention! I will notify you of the details separately!"

Twenty points each, plus detention. Compared to the original story, where they each lost fifty points and received much harsher detention, this punishment was far lighter. Though Harry and Hermione hung their heads in dejection over the lost points and detention, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least they had not been misunderstood as having committed something worse.

They returned to Gryffindor Tower in shame, their hearts filled with regret. When Silas learned of this, he merely shrugged and commented, "Careless. Remember to check your belongings next time." As for the Invisibility Cloak left behind at the Astronomy Tower, Filch later found it and turned it in. Dumbledore found an opportunity to return it to Harry, but that was another story.

In short, due to Silas's intervention—whether helping transport Norbert or "taking care of" Malfoy in advance—the outcome of that night still involved punishment, but it was far more peaceful than what might otherwise have happened.

After Professor McGonagall announced their detention, Harry and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room with their heads hanging. Ron and Silas, who had wandered over again, immediately gathered around them.

"How did it go? What did Professor McGonagall say?" Ron asked anxiously.

Hermione looked miserable, her voice full of grievance and exhaustion. "The punishment's been decided... On Friday afternoon, we have to help Mr. Filch polish every trophy in the trophy room... We can't use magic. We have to do it by hand!"

Ron sucked in a sharp breath. "Merlin's beard! The trophy room! There are thousands of trophies in there! Filch will definitely keep a close eye on you! How long will that take?"

Harry looked equally lifeless. "And Filch said that if we don't finish, we'll have to continue next Friday..."

The moment they imagined being in that gloomy trophy room, enduring Filch's gleeful gaze while using rags and polish to deal with trophies covered in centuries of dust, their future seemed utterly bleak.

Silas, who had remained silent the whole time, raised an eyebrow upon hearing the details of the punishment. His face wore an expression that clearly said, That's it? He swiftly compared it in his mind:

Polishing trophies? By hand? It sounded boring and exhausting... but it was ten thousand times better than being sent to patrol the Forbidden Forest like in the original story, then running directly into Voldemort, half-dead and drinking unicorn blood! That was truly life-threatening! This was just manual labor. The safety factor was much higher!

Thinking it over, he felt Harry and Hermione had simply struck it lucky. He patted Hermione on the shoulder and said in a tone mixed with sympathy—though not much—and relief:

"Mm... polishing trophies... That really is... unfortunate."

His tone sounded very sincere, but Hermione, familiar with his personality, felt that there seemed to be something else hidden in his words, as though he did not truly think the punishment was all that severe.

Hermione gave Silas a suspicious look, but did not think much of it. She merely sighed. "We can only accept the punishment... I just hope we can get through Friday smoothly."

Silas shrugged and said nothing more. In his view, using an afternoon of polishing trophies to offset the fatal risk of potentially facing Voldemort's remnant soul was an incredibly worthwhile trade. He even felt that Professor McGonagall had been remarkably lenient this time. Of course, he would never say that aloud.