Hogwarts Was Too Dangerous

"You. Actually. Came!" Hermione's deliberately lowered voice did nothing to hide her anger.

At the entrance to the Trophy Room, Hermione stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Harry, Ron, and-Neville.

"Hang on, Hermione..." Ron looked utterly exasperated, almost ready to cover his eyes. "You broke school rules and came out here in the middle of the night just to catch us breaking school rules?"

"Huh?" Hermione froze, suddenly realizing that perhaps, possibly, probably, something really was just a tiny bit wrong with that.

After leaving the library, Hermione had felt rather unsettled.

Only after carefully thinking back did she remember that Harry and Ron had arranged to duel Draco at the entrance to the Trophy Room that night.

Although Ron had sworn at the time that they were only fooling Draco, she couldn't help worrying. So she had quietly left her dormitory and come here to check.

Hermione had arrived fairly early and found nobody there-which was perfectly normal. Who would visit the rather out-of-the-way Trophy Room in the main building in the middle of the night?

At that point, Harry and the others had still been battling their homework in the library.

Finding nobody there had put Hermione somewhat at ease. But then she worried that she had simply arrived too early, before Harry and the others.

Staying here seemed to be against school rules, but going back would leave her worrying.

She went back and forth over it, and before she knew it, she had spent more than half an hour agonizing. It was already midnight, and just as Ron had said, Draco hadn't come. Neither had Harry or Ron.

Hermione privately decided she really had been overthinking things and was about to head back when she spotted the three of them sneaking toward her...

And then...

"This is all your fault!" Hermione glared fiercely at Ron, shifting the blame with practiced ease.

Ron pursed his lips and didn't argue. He seemed just as practiced at taking the blame.

"All right, Harry, Ron, Hermione, let's hurry back." Neville glanced around, looking distinctly nervous.

"If a professor on patrol catches us, we'll lose loads of points, won't we?"

"Neville's right. Come on, let's go." Hermione urged them along too, utterly disregarding the fact that she had been the first to arrive.

Harry and Ron naturally had no objections. Harry, especially, had actually forgotten all about his duel with Draco until Ron brought it up.

They were just about to head back, but before they had taken more than a couple of steps, they heard footsteps coming toward them.

At the same time, a harsh, raspy voice sounded in the distance. "Mrs. Norris, come this way. Let's see whether some little brats really have sneaked out of bed."

Filch!

The four little Gryffindor troublemakers exchanged glances, understanding one another without a word. With a coordination that came from nowhere, they turned almost simultaneously and hurried along the wall in small, quick steps. They slipped over to the Trophy Room, carefully opened the door, and ducked inside.

As Harry slipped inside, his thoughts raced.

He knew of two spells.

One was the Disillusionment Charm, which he had come across in a hefty tome while researching his History of Magic homework. Neither the school's spell textbooks nor its supplementary reference books included it. Its effect was simple: it made the body insubstantial, blending it into its surroundings to render it invisible.

It wasn't true invisibility, but its effects were still quite good.

The other was the Mirror Image Technique, a spell from Neil. Its effect resembled the Disillusionment Charm's, but was somewhat better and could conceal nearby companions as well. According to the magical classifications of Neil's Aegean World, it belonged to both the air and water branches of magic.

Knowing either of those spells would have made things easy right now. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't cast either, which left him in quite an awkward spot.

"Draco, that filthy rat! He actually went and tattled to Filch!" While Harry regretted not mastering the most important magic for nighttime excursions around the school, Ron was busy complaining.

Filch's words had made it obvious that he knew in advance that students might be here. Under the circumstances, it took no brains at all to work out that Draco, who had arranged the duel but failed to show up, must have told on them.

"Exactly! What a bastard!" Without even thinking, Harry voiced his agreement with a vicious curse. Neville, who had learned the general situation on the way over, said nothing, but hummed in agreement.

"Keep quiet and hurry!" Hermione scolded in a low voice, cutting short their denunciations.

The four of them hadn't entered the Trophy Room to hide, of course. Although the United Kingdom had no saying about catching a turtle in a jar, they still understood the principle of being trapped with nowhere to go.

They had come here because the Trophy Room had two doors, front and back, opening onto separate corridors. By going in one and out the other, they could put a considerable distance between themselves and their pursuer, as long as they weren't spotted and caught.

Things went fairly smoothly. By the time Hermione slipped out the back door and carefully closed it, the front door still hadn't opened. Now they were in an entirely different corridor from Filch.

"You. Must. Stop getting into trouble!" Hermione turned to address Harry and the other two.

Since you've been helping us study, we'll let that one slide.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. Though neither spoke, they arrived at exactly the same thought with remarkable understanding. Both obediently nodded without a word.

Hermione was reasonably satisfied with their response and was about to say something else. But because she had turned around, she hadn't been watching beside her and brushed against a suit of armor by the wall...

Clang! Crash! Clatter!