The long night passed.
A new nightmare began.
When the Gryffindor students woke up that morning and took a look, they could not believe their eyes.
Their house points had fallen to last place, a full hundred points down.
There were pitifully few red gems left in their hourglass.
The term had barely begun, and Gryffindor vowed to find the culprit.
The Slytherins laughed at their misfortune. Although they had lost fifty points themselves, nothing delighted them more than seeing their old rivals at the bottom.
Ravenclaw inexplicably found itself in first place. Even the ever-generous Hufflepuffs celebrated their rise to second with a hearty meal of baguettes and mixed-fish soup.
The three troublemakers did their best to keep a low profile. They could already imagine the fury that would erupt if anyone learned they had been caught wandering at night and lost those points.
"Look on the bright side," Stella said optimistically. "At least we saved Stephens."
"No one's ever going to know about that," Lewis grumbled. "Doing something good and not being able to tell anyone feels awful."
But then another thought struck Lewis, and he perked up again. Lowering his voice, he asked Stella, "Does this mean we passed the Wizard King's trial?"
Nothing could be more exciting than discovering the Wizard King's Treasure.
Stella was not quite sure either. In the end, the professors had rescued them.
Whether that really counted remained to be seen.
"We could go take another look at the Wizard King's Treasure," Lewis said eagerly.
"I don't think we can get in anymore." Stella shook her head. "I gave the badge back to Stephens."
"What!" Lewis raised his voice, drawing the burning, inquisitive gazes of the gossip-hungry students.
He hurriedly lowered his voice again and said in exasperation, "That's the Wizard King's