Harry had failed to discover anything unusual about Lockhart, and he did not know whether that counted as good news or bad news.
Still, making that circuit had eased his earlier unease just a little. Once he relaxed, Harry felt a pang of hunger.
Only then did Harry realize that he had spent rather a long time in Lockhart's office. Dinner was nearly over. This was no laughing matter. Hogwarts had no pizza delivery; if he missed dinner, he would go hungry that night.
At that thought, Harry found a deserted corner and willed it to happen. The sensation of an electric current running through his body returned. When he looked down again, his body was no longer invisible.
Of course, he could not stay invisible while going to the Great Hall to eat.
With time running short, Harry hurried off, intending to head downstairs to the Great Hall.
But the staircases and corridors at Hogwarts could be that annoying sometimes. The more of a hurry you were in, the more they messed with you, changing direction at random. The reason professors rarely deducted points for lateness was precisely that these staircases and corridors were so unreliable.
Harry wandered around for ages, only to remain stuck in a second-floor corridor, unable to get downstairs.
It was so annoying!
Harry had a whole string of swear words in his head that simply had to be said.
Ranting furiously to himself, Harry walked along the corridor, hoping to find another staircase leading down.
Hogwarts Castle was big, very big. But Harry had, after all, lived and studied here for almost a year. Under normal circumstances, he felt he should not have been unable to find his way.
But things in the magical world often failed to be normal, and so Harry was