"Gotcha."
Harry spotted his trainer and grabbed it, noting the thick layer of dust surrounding the shoe. Vaguely wondering exactly how long it had been under his bed, he got out of his crouched position and put it on. Doing so, he glanced at his watch, and groaned inwardly as he realized the Hogwarts Express would be leaving in 10 minutes.
It had been a sad procession that walked back to the castle after Dumbledore's funeral. They walked back to the Great Hall and a few more people talked about Dumbledore, how noble he was, how courageous he was, and so on and so forth. Though it was clear that nobody was very hungry, a feast followed and the students' departure was delayed by a flurry of long goodbyes, the teachers being rather lenient and shedding quite a few tears themselves. All in all, it was nearly eight o' clock when they were instructed to go back to their dormitories and get their trunks. Things were not going very smoothly, however, in Gryffindor Tower.
"It still won't come off!" said an angry voice behind Harry. He turned and gave an exasperated sigh. Dean had been attempting for the past 20 minutes to get a large poster of his soccer team off the wall, but it still stuck fast. The members of the West Ham soccer team grinned back stupidly at him while he vainly tried to pry the poster off the wall.
"I reckon it's a Permanent Sticking Charm," Seamus said walking over to Dean, who was now jabbing at the players with his wand.
"If it is, there isn't really anything we can do about it," Harry said, remembering all too well the portrait of Sirius' shrieking mother. 'The train's leaving in 10 minutes. We need to get down there."
Dean, having succeeded in jabbing a player and sending him spiraling out of control to the goal posts, gave a final pry and a shrug.
The boys picked up their trunks and dragged them down the stairs. Harry was just beginning to think that they would get to the Great Hall with time to spare when he heard angry voices from the common room.
"Honestly, Ron, why on earth did you leave it down there?"
"You think I did it on purpose? And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!"
Dragging his trunk behind him, Harry entered the common room to see Hermione and Ron in the middle of a thundering argument.
"What's wrong?" he said in a weary tone, already dreading the answer.
Ron opened his mouth to speak, but Hermione beat him to it.
"He left his broom on the Quidditch field!" she exclaimed.
"I didn't leave it there on purpose, I-"
"Guys, we really don't have time for this," Harry said, glancing at his watch again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lavender and Parvati scrambling around the room. They seemed to be in the same mindset as Ron; they were hurrying to gather magazines and cosmetics scattered around the room.
"I'll just go down and get it really fast, I can't leave it there, not since we're-"
Hermione jabbed him with her wand at this point; he was about to say that he couldn't leave it since they weren't coming back. Dean and Seamus gave him curious looks, but didn't say anything.
"Fine Ron, go get it, but hurry up. The train'll be gone in 10 minutes."
Ron dashed out of the common room, while Hermione dropped into an armchair, lips still pursed in fury, obviously thinking that a task so petty as retrieving a broomstick wasn't worth the risk of missing the train and should be punishable by law. She probably would've said something about it had it not been for the yelp that seemed to come from underneath the chair. She jumped up and backed away from the armchair. Seconds later, Neville's worried face peeked up from the back of it.
"I can't find Trevor!" he said desperately.
"Neville, you can never find Trevor." Seamus said irritably as he scrambled to pick up the scores of toffees that had fallen from his bag when he jumped in surprise from the yelp. "I'm surprised he hasn't died by now."
Harry looked down at his watch in dismay.
"The train's leaving soon. We're going to miss it if we don't hurry up. We don't have time to look for Trevor."
"Well, we have to do something while Ron's looking for his stupid broomstick," Hermione said, her eyes flashing angrily.
Everyone dropped to their knees rather half-heartedly and looked for the toad. A few minutes later, Ron came bounding into the common room, broomstick held up triumphantly.
"Well, it's about time!" Hermione said, scrambling back up. "I wouldn't be surprised if the train left already!"
"It hasn't," Harry said shortly, looking down at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time. "But we'll probably have to run to make it."
Having successfully gathered their collections of lipgloss, Parvati and Lavender dumped their belongings into their trunks and shut them. Neville sadly got up and glanced once more around the common room, hoping to see Trevor peeking out from under a table.
Still fuming, Hermione gave her wand a flick and her trunk gracefully rose into the air. Everyone followed suit, and they proceeded to the portrait hole. Dean got there first and gave it a push. It didn't move.
"What's wrong?" Lavender asked.
"It won't open," he said, giving it another push. Harry moved past Dean and leaned against it. It didn't move.
"Oh, honestly!" Hermione said in an annoyed tone. "Somebody probably jammed it on their way in here." She glared at Ron, then flicked her wand. "Alohamora."
It remained firmly closed.
Nonplussed, she gave her wand a series of complicated waves, and pushed the door again. Nothing.
In frustration, Seamus gave it a swift kick, but succeeded in doing nothing more than nearly breaking his toe. As he hopped up and down, Harry looked down at his watch.
8:31.
"It's gone." he said, his heart sinking. "The train's left."
The sun was already setting, illuminating everyone's worried faces. Pavarti desperately gave the door one last faint push.
"So, we're stuck in our common room, at the end of term, at night, with everyone but ourselves on a train heading towards London and not coming back for two months." Ron said, somehow confirming their own fears.
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A/N: Ooooh, how suspenseful! If you'd like more, leave a review and I'll punch out some more. Thanks for reading!
