"I'm sorry, Harry, Hermione, Neville. When I saw Professor McGonagall, I was worried we'd lose even more points if I came out, so..." In the Common Room, Ron approached the dejected trio as they returned and apologized guiltily. He felt terrible about not sharing his friends' hardships.
"Don't say that, Ron. I was worrying about that at the time. I was really afraid you'd come out." Harry understood what his best friend was thinking, of course, but he firmly believed Ron had done exactly the right thing. Fifty points each-even he, who didn't usually think much of house points, had been shaken this time.
"Harry's right, Ron. Not coming out this time was definitely one of the best decisions you've ever made," Hermione said with absolute certainty.
She cared far more about points than Harry did, and right now she felt as though her heart were bleeding. Fifty points! She couldn't earn that many in a week, yet she'd lost them all in one go-and there had been three lots of them.
Deep down, Hermione secretly swore that she would never, ever, ever be so curious again. If she hadn't wanted one last look at the baby dragon tonight and tagged along to join in, she could at least have saved Gryffindor fifty points.
Losing a hundred and fifty points in one go was, of course, impossible to keep secret.
By the next day, word had spread throughout the house.
Harry, who had been very popular in Gryffindor, and Ron, who had been fairly popular, suddenly found that no one would speak to them-as for Neville and Hermione, hardly anyone had spoken to them in the first place.
Harry felt uncomfortable at first, but later he felt it wasn't so bad. Everyone had been a little too enthusiastic toward him