After lights-out, in the Gryffindor Common Room.
Loren mingled with the crowd, chatting to pass the time. Before long, Hermione emerged from the girls' dormitory to join him, ready for this nighttime excursion. Nearly all the Gryffindor seventh years had arrived, except for the two prefects, Parvati and Neville.
Parvati had disguised herself as Padma and slipped into Ravenclaw's group.
Neville had gone to Hufflepuff to find Hannah.
The two prefects had neither knowingly broken the rules nor turned a blind eye to students from their own House violating them. They simply happened not to be present and had been unable to stop it in time. So conscientious, yet so flexible with their principles—truly admirable.
As they crawled through the Portrait Hole and left the Common Room.
Loren saw that the Fat Lady in the portrait beside the entrance was utterly dumbfounded. She watched the students vanish around the corridor corner, then looked up at the corridor windows before glancing at the neatly departing students again. Frowning, she scratched her head, clearly beginning to doubt reality.
"Isn't it still the middle of the night? Why are you all getting up to go to school?
"Did I oversleep?
"Or did Violet give me fake wine?"
Her muttered monologue drew quiet snickers from several students behind her.
The moment they crawled out through the Portrait Hole, the boisterous noise from the Common Room abruptly died down. As if by prior agreement, everyone lowered their voices and wandered through the Castle corridors in the dead of night.
Moonlight streamed evenly through the windows onto the corridor floor, clear and bright as a lake in early spring. The faint shapes swimming through those waters, like perch beneath the surface, turned out to be groups of young witches and wizards.
When they reached the Third