Ace Air Force

The next morning, Ernie Macmillan was woken by a rustling sound.

He rolled over and pulled the covers over his head, suddenly sensed something was wrong, then snapped his eyes open.

Someone was sitting on the bed opposite, which had been empty for nearly a month. Gavin Gu sat cross-legged on its edge in his pajamas, leafing through a notebook with his head lowered and his hair still a little tousled. Morning light slipped through a gap in the curtains, drawing a narrow stripe across his shoulder.

"You're back?!" Ernie's voice still had the rasp of someone just waking up, but it was already loud enough to wake the entire dormitory.

Justin sprang up in his own bed, his hair sticking up as though it had been brushed with a broomstick's tail, his eyes still half closed. As he gradually made out the person sitting opposite, he froze.

"When did you—"

"Last night." Gavin closed his notebook. "Very late. You were already asleep."

"That's not what we meant." Justin pulled his legs out from under the covers and planted his bare feet on the floor. "You disappeared for a month! A whole month! I thought you'd dropped out. Ernie said Snape must have kidnapped you."

"I didn't say kidnapped," Ernie corrected. "I said 'unlawfully detained.'"

"Is there a difference?"

"Of course. Kidnapping falls under criminal law. Unlawful detention falls under school rules."

Gavin looked at them both and set his notebook on the bedside table. "I went to study the Philosopher's Stone."

Ernie and Justin simultaneously gave him a look that said, Do you think I'm an idiot?

"All right, I was taking secret lessons with Dumbledore," Gavin added.

The two exchanged a glance and nodded, finding that explanation more believable.

"Why didn't you say so?" Justin's tone immediately shifted