Sending Norbert Away

The plan proceeded more smoothly than expected. With Silas's "assistance" (he directly used a portal to transport the crate containing Norbert to the top of the Astronomy Tower, saving Harry and Hermione the trouble of sneaking around the castle with the heavy box while wearing their Invisibility Cloak), Charlie's friends appeared on time and quietly took away the rapidly growing Norbert.

However, perhaps the departure of Norbert had gone too smoothly, causing Harry and Hermione to let their guard down; or perhaps the chill of the late night and their nervousness had muddled their minds—as they hurried away from the Astronomy Tower, they completely forgot the crucial Invisibility Cloak on the railing at the top of the tower!

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had clearly intended to cause trouble, but Silas's previous "threat" had indeed worked. The mere thought of Silas's cold eyes and those bizarre red chains sent a chill down his spine, making him too afraid to easily follow Harry and the others, let alone catch them sneaking out in the middle of the night. Therefore, Malfoy obediently stayed in the Slytherin dormitory that night.

Thus, when Harry and Hermione, empty-handed and without the cover of the Invisibility Cloak, rushed down from the Astronomy Tower, they ran right into Professor McGonagall, who was on her late-night patrol!

Professor McGonagall looked at the two Gryffindor students, dressed too lightly and clearly having just come from the tower, her face ashen.

"Mr. Potter! Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall's voice trembled slightly with shock and disappointment, "It's long past curfew! What are you doing here? Explain yourselves!"

Harry and Hermione turned pale with fright, stammering, unable to come up with a plausible excuse. They couldn't exactly say, "We were here to send off an illegally kept dragon," could they?

Professor McGonagall scrutinized them sternly. Without Malfoy's appearance, Professor McGonagall did not, as in the original plot, assume from the outset that Harry and Hermione were deliberately lying about the "dragon" to trick Malfoy and were therefore out of bounds. All she saw were two students who had clearly broken school rules wandering around late at night.

Despite being very angry, Professor McGonagall had always held high expectations and a certain degree of trust in Hermione. She believed this was more likely a simple act of indiscipline, disregarding the consequences.

Ultimately, Professor McGonagall made her disciplinary decision, her tone stern and disappointed:

"I don't know what reason you had to go to the Astronomy Tower in the dead of night, but breaking school rules is breaking school rules! Gryffindor will lose 20 points each for your actions! And, starting next week, you will both be on detention! I will inform you of the specifics later!"

20 points each, plus detention. This punishment was much lighter than in the original plot (50 points each and more severe detention). Although Harry and Hermione were dejected about the point deduction and detention, they also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, at least not being misunderstood as having committed a more serious offense.

They shamefacedly returned to Gryffindor Tower, filled with regret. When Silas learned of this news, he merely shrugged and commented, "Careless. Remember to check your belongings next time." As for the Invisibility Cloak forgotten at the Astronomy Tower, it was later found by Filch and handed in. Dumbledore found an opportunity to return it to Harry, but that's a story for another time.

In short, due to Silas's intervention (whether it was helping transport Norbert or "handling" Malfoy beforehand), the outcome of this night, although still involving punishment, was far more peaceful than it could have been.

After Professor McGonagall announced the detention penalty, Harry and Hermione dejectedly returned to the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Silas (who had wandered over again) immediately surrounded them.

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

Hermione's face was crestfallen, her voice filled with grievance and exhaustion, "The punishment is decided... Friday afternoon, we have to help Mr. Filch polish all the trophies in the trophy display room... without magic, we have to use our hands to polish them!"

Ron gasped, "Merlin's Beard! The trophy display room! There are thousands of trophies there! Filch will definitely be watching you closely! How long will that take to polish!"

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

The thought of enduring Filch's gloating gaze in that gloomy display room, battling centuries of dust on the trophies with rags and polish, made the future seem bleak for the two of them.

Silas, who had been silent, raised an eyebrow upon hearing the details of the punishment, a "Is that all?" expression on his face. He quickly compared it internally:

(Internal monologue: Polishing trophies? By hand? It sounds rather boring and tiring... but it's infinitely better than the original plot, where they were sent to patrol the Forbidden Forest and directly encountered Voldemort, who was drinking unicorn blood and half-dead! That was truly life-threatening! This is just physical labor, much safer!)

Thinking this, he felt Harry and Hermione had gotten incredibly lucky. He patted Hermione's shoulder, his tone a mixture of sympathy (but not much) and relief, "Well... polishing trophies, huh... that's truly... unfortunate."

His tone sounded sincere, but Hermione, who knew his personality well, always felt there was something else hidden in his words, as if he didn't really think the punishment was that severe.

Hermione gave Silas a suspicious glance but didn't dwell on it, merely sighing, "We just have to accept the punishment... I hope Friday goes smoothly."

Silas shrugged and said nothing more. In his opinion, trading an afternoon of polishing trophies for the chance to avoid the fatal risk of facing Voldemort's remnant soul was an incredibly good deal. He even felt Professor McGonagall had been "merciful" this time. Of course, he wouldn't say that out loud.