One Shot
A Thunderous Night
Rain was hitting the window hard, and the air was as cold as ice. Ron and Harry laid on their beds, their heads covered with their thick blankets, shaking from cold.
"Harry?" Ron whispered, as a strong thunder came from outside the window of the boys' dormitory.
"Yes, Ron?" Harry whispered back, appearing from under the blanket.
Ron peered from under his blanket too and said, "It's so bloody cold…and the thunder is…just freaking me out"
Harry nodded, "me too"
Hogwarts never had such thunder and rain as this one.
"Wish we were home now" Ron said, covering his head under the blanket again.
"Yeah" Harry said, sighing.
All the boys went back to their homes this Christmas, and Harry and Ron had to stay at Hogwarts because Mr. Weasley had a lot of work to do and he couldn't come and pick them up.
As Ron and Harry imagined themselves back at home next to the cozy fire, a knock came.
"Do you think it's one of the boys, maybe they came back from their home?" Ron said hopefully.
The door opened, but instead of a boy, Hermione Granger came inside and closed the door behind her.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked her, frowning.
"I … I was so scared" she said, "I'm the only girl in our dormitory…" she looked at them both.
She was wearing a pink pajama, and slippers that matched them, and was holding her pillow and blanket.
Without another word she walked to the bed opposite Harry and Ron and lied on it.
"You're not going to sleep here, are you?" Ron said, as he looked at her covering herself with the blanket.
"I'm not going back to the dormitory," she said, looking scared.
"What? Are you scared?" Ron said, smiling.
Then a thunderous thunder came from outside and Ron shouted covering his head.
Hermione raised her eyebrows at Ron when he reappeared from under the blanket.
"Alright, alright…don't look at me like that," he said, "you can stay here"
They lied on their beds, silent.
"I can't sleep" Harry whispered after a minute from his bed.
"Me too" Hermione said, "not in this –" another loud thunder came, "condition" she finished.
The three of them sat up on their beds, giving up.
"What do we do?" Ron asked, looking around the room.
"Well, I –" Hermione began, but they spotted a flash of white light in the room, and immediately closed their ears and covered their heads.
They heard a distant thunder and then they regained their position of sitting.
"What were you saying?" Harry asked her.
"I don't know" she finished her sentence.
They sat there in silence, not knowing what to do.
Ron was just thinking about some game when something soft hit him on his head.
"Hey!" he said, picking the pillow that Harry just threw at him.
Harry and Hermione started laughing.
Ron threw the pillow at Harry as he was laughing, but it missed him by an inch.
"Bad luck" Harry said, still laughing.
Hermione was laughing at them both, and Ron and Harry seized their chance and hit her with two pillows at the same time.
"Argh" she got hit by both pillows straight in the face.
Now it was Harry and Ron's turn to laugh.
"Stop it…" she said, "it's not funny anymore" and they stopped laughing.
Silence came again, as they sat there.
Thunder came a little softer this time, and they all looked at the window.
"I'm booooored" Ron said, rubbing his eye.
"How about a game" Hermione said, and they looked at her.
"What game?" Harry asked, "We don't wanna play chess"
"No, no, not chess" she said, getting up from her bed and heading for Harry's trunk.
"What are you doing?" he asked her.
"Wait" she said, opening the trunk and rummaging inside it.
After minutes of searching, she stood up holding Harry's invisibility cloak.
"Why is that?" Ron asked her.
"Well, one of us wears it and hides somewhere in the common room or here, without moving" she explained.
"Oh" Harry said, nodding.
"The other two try to find him" she continued, "the first one who does will win" she smiled.
"Alright" Ron said, getting out of his bed.
"I'm going to hide" Harry quickly said, and he grabbed the cloak.
"Ok" Hermione and Ron both said.
"We'll count till 20" Hermione said, "that should give you time to hide"
She and Ron closed their eyes and started counting; Harry put the cloak on him and went to find a hiding place.
"18 … 19 … 20" they finished, and Hermione and Ron opened their eyes.
Hermione ran downstairs and Ron started to search the dormitory.
She went down and started clutching the air with her hands, searching.
After five minutes, Ron came downstairs and saw Hermione still clutching the air and trying to find Harry.
"Found him?" she asked.
"No…" he answered, "nothing"
She stopped and looked at him, "but that's impossible…I can't find him here either"
"Maybe you didn't search properly," Ron said.
"No, maybe you didn't search well up there" she said.
"Alright, you go search upstairs and I'll research down here" he said, and Hermione ran upstairs again.
After half an hour of searching and researching they both came downstairs and collapsed into a chair.
"This is mad," Ron said, "where is he?"
Hermione was panting hard and looking tired.
"I don't know…and I don't wanna know," she said, clutching her side, which was aching like hell.
Ron looked around, "we searched everywhere…it's not really fun, it's tiring"
"Harry" she announced, "anywhere you are…just get out" she and Ron looked around; dying to know where is he.
Harry came walking downstairs, a huge smile on his face.
"Oh my…you were upstairs?" Hermione said.
"No" Harry shook his head.
"But you came from there" Ron said, pointing at the stairs.
"Harry!" Hermione said, looking annoyed, "I said no moving from your place"
"I didn't move" Harry said, shaking his head again.
Ron and Hermione looked at him, their faces blank.
He was laughing at them, "I 'laughs' was 'laughs' in the middle of the stairs"
"What?" they both said, looking confused.
"I was hiding near the wall…you guys passed me like…hundred times without trying to search along the way," he laughed.
"We don't want to play it again" Hermione said, getting up and walking slowly back up the stairs and heading for the dormitory.
Harry stopped laughing and followed her, Ron right behind him.
"I'm so tired" Ron said, yawning as he said it.
"Me too" Hermione said, still clutching her side and limping to bed.
"But I'm not" Harry said, "come on guys, don't sleep…let's play something else" he said.
However, both Ron and Hermione covered their heads under the blankets and Harry didn't argue anymore.
He lay on his bed, trying to go to sleep, with no success.
"One" he whispered, "Two" he was counting the Firebolts flying in his head. He fell asleep at the thirtieth.
Ronald Weasley was walking in a corridor. He was looking around him, as though searching for something.
He walked and walked until he saw someone at the far corner of the corridor.
"Hello" he said, followed by his echo in the empty place.
"MR. WEASLEY" the person shouted at him and he jumped.
"Yes" he said, standing stiff as though he was in the military.
"I want you out of here" the voice of Harry echoed.
"Yes, SIR" he said, stumping his foot hard on the floor.
"I want you gone" the voice of Hermione echoed this time.
"Yes, SI…I mean, yes, MA'AM" he shouted, stumping his foot once more.
"You failed in your quest to find him" professor McGonagall said, looking down at him.
"I'm sorry," he wept, falling to his knees and begging her for mercy.
"GET UP" another voice said, and he saw Madam Pince looking at him like an underfed vulture.
He got up on his feet, "what?" he asked her, looking confused.
"Your book" she said, pointing at a book that just fell from his bag.
He handed her the book.
Suddenly, he was standing in the dormitory, all the other boys were laughing at him.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME!" he shouted, "WHY ARE YOU ALL LAUGHING AT ME!"
Then he looked down and saw that there was nothing.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh" he fell and fell in the emptiness around him.
Then a huge and very, very loud thunder hit him while falling.
Ron woke up with a gasp.
He looked around him and saw that Harry and Hermione fell asleep too, but they didn't hear him.
He sighed and went back to sleep.
Hermione was running towards Hagrid's hut, she wanted to visit him.
"Oh, hello Hermione" Hagrid said cheerfully, looking very down at her.
"Hi Hagrid" she said, her smile wide.
"Have you heard?" he asked her, as he poured some tea in her lap.
"No, what?" she asked him, licking the tea from her lap.
Then suddenly, she was looking up at a very, very high stand.
People surrounded her; they were whispering and glancing at her in a disgusted way.
She looked and saw a stiff-looking man sitting on the very high stand in front of her.
"HERMIONE GRANGER" his voice boomed at her.
"Yes" she whimpered, looking frightened at them all.
"You have been accused of these charges…" he boomed, and she looked up.
"What charges sir?" she asked, looking innocently at him.
"You have slept in a boys' dorm" he boomed, and she looked at him wide-eyed.
"You knew that it was wrong yet you did it" he said, looking at her angrily.
"Yes sir" she said, "but…Ron said it's ok"
All the people around her started laughing and pointing at her.
She just wanted the ground to open and swallow her, and to her surprise, her wish came true.
She fell in a huge black hole, as she screamed for help. When she landed on the soft ground under her, she looked around.
She was in a forest, and she was suddenly wearing a scout's clothes and was holding a spear in her hand.
"Better watch out for me" she said, "I'm coming to get you Harry"
She walked, and then she heard laughter, again.
It was so loud that her ears were hurting her. She covered them and looked around.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, hundreds and hundreds of pillows were hitting her.
"Stop…stop" she said.
"Stop" she opened her eyes.
She looked and saw that she was sleeping in the dormitory. She remembered the dream.
She got out of bed, took her pillow and blanket and headed for her dormitory.
Harry was laughing hard at Ron and Hermione as they ran and ran in a huge place.
"Come on" he shouted, "You could do better than that" he slapped the whip at them and they ran faster and faster.
Then he looked behind him and saw Malfoy sitting on a chair.
"What are you looking at?" he asked Harry, glaring at him.
"Silence" Snape said in a cold voice.
He walked towards Harry's desk and looked him in the eye.
"DETENTION" he shouted in Harry's face.
Then he went to the front again. Harry turned to look at Ron next to him.
"Can I have a tissue?" he asked.
"Sure mate" Ron said, searching his pocket.
He handed Harry a tattered looking tissue and was so crumpled that it was torn in some places.
"Thanks Ron" Harry said, smiling at his best friend.
Harry wiped the spit on his face and looked in front of him.
Hermione was standing and looking angry.
"What's up?" Harry asked her, looking cheerfully at her.
He waved his hand at her a little.
She raised her hand, to wave…but instead, Harry received the strongest smack on the face he could ever get.
It was so hard, that he was lifted off his feet and hit the ground.
"Wow" he said, sitting on the ground and rubbing his head.
He had fallen while he was having a weird dream.
He looked around and saw light coming softly from the window.
"IT'S MORNING," he shouted, "AT LAST"
He smiled widely and saw Ron still sleeping, not even noticing that Harry was shouting, and Hermione was nowhere to be seen.
"Ah, well…" he sighed.