Harry and Ron had both of their mouths wide open."We didn"t." Ron said, "They went out for the dr-"
"Shut up, Mr. Weasley, I think I"ve got a good idea of what"s been going on," said Professor McGonagall. "It doesn"t take a genius to work it out. You hid his wand to get them out of the bed and into trouble, I also caught Longbottom who was caught in your trick."
"Neville?" Harry asked confused.
"I suppose you think it"s funny that Longbottom was also caught in your plan, don"t you?" said Professor McGonagall, "He was out of his bed trying to warn Mr. Black over here about your schemes."
Harry and Ron had pale faces while on the other hand, Draco"s and Theodore"s mentality towards Neville was changing. They looked at each other and nodded in understanding.
"Professor, that"s not it." Harry said trying to defend himself and Ron, "He was the one who--"
"Mr. Potter do care to explain how you knew about them going out then?" Professor McGonagall said. "I am very disappointed in you two."
"I--" Harry wanted to say something in his defense but Ron pulled his hand signaling him to stop. He knew if he went on further about this, Hagrid could get into trouble.
"I"m disgusted," said Professor McGonagall. "Five students out of bed in one night! I"ve never heard of such a thing before! All five of you will receive detentions -- yes, both of you too, Mr. Nott and Mr. Black, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it"s very dangerous -- and fifty points will be taken from both Gryffindor and Slytherin."
"But Neville--" Draco tried to protect him but looking at McGonagall"s face he stopped.
Theodore was shocked by their punishment specifically considering his victim card didn"t work. Draco wasn"t that surprised considering McGonagall"s behavior of being fair to all people.
"Fifty?" Harry gasped -- they would lose the lead, the lead he"d won in the last Quidditch match. He and Ron were really regretting coming here to trap Draco.
"Fifty points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.
"Professor -- please"
"You can"t --"
Harry and Ron pleaded but nothing worked, on the other hand, Draco and Theodore were calm since they were still on the lead, against other houses since both of them had managed to pile up a lot of house points. Harry and Ron felt guilty considering what would happen when other"s find out about it tomorrow morning, especially Ron since he hadn"t even contributed a single point, Just thinking about Percy"s angry face made him scared.
"Don"t tell me what I can and can"t do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I"ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students." A hundred and fifty points were lost. That put Gryffindor in the last place. In one night, they"d ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the house cup. Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. How could they ever make up for this?
Gryffindors and Slytherins pa.s.sing the giant hourgla.s.ses that recorded the house points the next day thought there"d been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer and the Slytherin"s had a hundred points less than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, by trying to mess with Black and Nott of the Slytherin house.
From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup since they had been consecutively winning for 6 years now. Everywhere Harry went, people, pointed and didn"t trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"
No one had any problem with Draco and Theodore since they were on the lead mostly because of them. Considering they were still on the lead no one wanted to pick troubles with them. Both of them managed to repress the information on Neville but he still looked down knowing he was the cause of one of those mishaps.
Harry, on the other hand, was suffering, Harry swore to himself not to meddle in things that weren"t his business from now on. He"d had it with sneaking around and spying, trying to make people fall in trouble. He felt so ashamed of himself as he had stooped to the same level as Dudley.
"What happened?" Hermione, Pansy and Daphne came to the table and said, "Tell me."
"Why don"t you ask Potter and Weasley?" Theodore snorted, Even though no one was blaming them he was still p.i.s.sed about the incident.
"Sigh! Don"t take it out on Hermione." Draco said, "It"s not her fault."
"Che, I still have to take my revenge or I am never going to be satisfied." said Theodore.
"What is going on?" Pansy said, "Tell us about it, at least."
"Potter and Weasley told Professor McGonagall about us going out in the night." Draco said, "Probably to try getting us in trouble."
"What?" Hermione was shocked listening to that information since Ron and Harry wouldn"t budge about it.
"Hmph! You heard him." Theodore said, "Next time I beat them up, don"t come trying to defend them."
The girls looked over at Harry and Ron over the next table who were sitting on the Gryffindor table alone with their heads down.
"I am sorry!" Hermione said in a soft voice, "I told them that you were going out in the night but I didn"t expect them to do such a thing."
Draco looked at Hermione who looked as if she was going to cry any moment now, he wanted to say something but before he could Daphne and Pansy jumped over.
"It"s not your fault." Pansy said, "Both of them betrayed your trust."
"Yeah! They are the one at fault, not you." Daphne said, "So you don"t have to apologize."
Hermione looked over at them and looked at Draco,
"I don"t blame you." Draco said still surprised thinking when did all of the girls became friends and Theodore snorted saying, "Just don"t come defending them when I try having a talk with them."
"Thanks!" Hermione said still sad.
"Sigh! Don"t worry about them." Pansy said, "I heard all of you got detention."
"Yeah! It"s a drag."
"By the way, what happened to Norberta?" Daphne asked in a worried tone. The three girls looked at Draco and Theodore with a questioning look getting worried for Norberta.
"She is fine." Draco said, "Luckily we sent her back outside the castle otherwise things could have been much worse."
Everyone sighed in relief knowing Norberta was fine, "So she should be in Romania by now, shouldn"t she?"
"I think she will be there today, I just don"t know when." Draco said.
"What were those two idiots thinking?" Hermione started getting angry after knowing Norberta was fine, "Really such idiots, with a hundred and fifty points gone they lost over all the points I have collected over a couple of months."
"Don"t know," Draco said. "I just wish that at least within the next year, both of them get enough brains in them to know the consequences of doing certain things."
The exams weren"t far away and all the studying the students had to do keep their mind off the whole drama that occurred. Ron and Harry had to study extra hard since Hermione stopped talking to them after knowing what happened. Draco had heard that both of them tried to apologize to her but failed, due to Hermione not even giving them a chance to speak. On the other hand, Hermione started helping Neville instead after knowing he tried to warn them.
All the students were working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions...
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I think some people have some confusion over what is going on so let me explain.
The whole expelling thing was taken lightly in the first and the second book, like Draco trying to get Harry and Ron expelled and vice versa.
It"s just a bunch of kids trying to win over each other without understanding the consequence of their actions. Especially to all the Ron haters out there, calm down!!
P.S there will be some payback in the future chapter.