Caught
Harry Potter was bored. It was after 11pm and he was still sitting down in the Gryffindor common room with Ron, trying to finish off their Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. Hermione had disappeared over an hour ago, finally getting fed up with their badgering her for ideas.
Chewing on the end of his quill, Harry wondered if he could just write anything down. Snape actually seemed happier when Harry handed in something where he could criticise every sentence. Unfortunately the first 16 inches were of a fairly good quality, giving up now and writing nonsense, or writing twice the size would only show Snape that he had left it to the last minute.
"Hope it clears up before practise tomorrow." Ron said, intruding on Harry's thoughts.
Harry spun around in his armchair to follow Ron's gaze out of the windows. It was a stereotypical Scottish November night. The rain was pelting against the window as it had been for just about the whole week. Their quiddich robes were hung up on rails around the huge fireplace, still damp from yesterday's practice.
"I do to. I'll have to cancel training if it stays this bad, and it's only going to get worse before Christmas." Harry wasn't sure his hands had recovered yet and thought his ears might still be frozen.
"You want to try the prefects' bathroom, mate." Ron said. "It warms you right up. You just need to make sure Moaning Myrtle doesn't turn up. Or have a towel handy."
"Yeah, she cornered me in there during fourth year." Harry grimaced, "I never did tell Cedric she was spying on him…"
Ron laughed, "I almost had a heart attack when she zoomed out of the lav. She didn't hang around long- I think she's still disappointed you didn't get offed in the tournament."
Harry smiled, "I hope I never become a ghost! I probably shouldn't go tonight though, it's a bit late. I've not had that many detentions yet, think it's a record for me."
Ron looked at him like he was insane, "You are kidding, right? You've got the map and your dad's cloak. The only way you could get caught is if Snape actually walks in on you in your pants."
"Has that happened to you?" Harry asked, alarmed.
Ron shook his head, "Nah, teachers don't go in there, they've got a nicer bathroom on the fourth floor, I think. Anyway, there's a charm on the door that only lets one person in at a time."
Harry looked at him slyly, "So who were you trying to take in there with you?"
"Nobody!" Ron held his hands up to protest his innocence, he looked a little sick, "If you must know, I tried to get in when Ernie was already in there. The spell threw me right across the corridor and that bloody mermaid started screaming at me."
Harry laughed, "Ernie MacMillan? I bet he got a fright!"
"Probably wet himself," Ron grinned.
An hour later, Harry was walking back down to the common room with his towel and pyjamas under his arm, trying to juggle watching the marauders' map and wrapping his cloak around him at the same time. The homework was completed and Harry had checked that he had the right password for the bathroom.
Harry checked the map, the route down looked clear at the moment. He could see the Slytherin prefects on their way back to their common room after their rounds. Professor Snape was just leaving the Great Hall, McGonagall was in her office and Filch was in the Transfiguration corridor.
Apart from that everyone seemed to be where they should be. Well- except a couple of seventh years in a room off the Ravenclaw common room. Harry averted his eyes, uncomfortable, they had been there at least an hour. But who was he to judge? They were Ravenclaws after all, they might be studying.
Unfortunately the map didn't show ghosts, which meant Harry had no clues about where Myrtle or Peeves might be. He wondered if there was a way to add them to the map and resolved to ask Hermione as soon as she wasn't suspicious about him being out after curfew. He would need to come up with a benevolent reason to have them there.
Harry made it out of the portrait hall, barely waking the Fat Lady and walked quietly down to the marble staircase. He had just made it down the first flight of stairs and glanced down to check the map when-
"Mr Potter!"
Oh no.
Somehow, Professor McGonagall had appeared behind him, she had turned up on the map as well and he turned as silently as possible to look at her. Glancing down, he could tell that he wasn't visible at all. Maybe she had made a lucky guess after hearing a noise?
Harry decided to risk it and stayed silent, waiting for her to give up. He was starting to run out of breath though.
"Mr Potter, take off that cloak."
It could still be a trick, Harry thought. She doesn't lose anything by threatening thin air…
"10 points from Gryffindor. I am losing patience."
She didn't really mean that, did she? Harry was fairly certain she wouldn't take those points without solid proof.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Potter, you have detention this weekend. If you do not become visible in the next five seconds, I will confiscate that ridiculous thing."
Harry gave up, pulling the cloak open so she could see him, surreptitiously hiding the map behind his back. He took a deep breath as well, happy that his lungs weren't going to burst.
"Professor, I-"
She rolled her eyes, "Come back upstairs, Potter."
"Yes Ma'am." Harry hurried to take the cloak fully off and wrap it around his arm instead, making sure his things were hidden.
"Where were you trying to go, Potter? Do you have an entertaining excuse at least?"
"Umm…"
The professor sighed, "I caught your father and his friends more times than I can count. I was always given an interesting excuse- I am not foolish enough to believe I was ever told the truth of course. Mr Black in particular enjoyed producing epic tales of valour."
"Did it ever work?"
McGonagall considered the question for a minute as they got closer to the portrait hole.
"Perhaps."
She lost some of her tight-lipped look at Harry's incredulous look. The Fat Lady was awake and looked like she was itching for the chance to tell Harry off.
"Do not forget your detention, Potter. Sunday at 4 o'clock in my office."
"No, Professor. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Potter. Next time, do try to not be out quite so far after curfew. I do have classes to teach in the morning. And you are allowed to be in the Prefect's bathroom, just try to be there at the correct time!"
Harry made it through the portrait hole in record time, he thought he heard his teacher laughing and then the disapproving tones of the Fat Lady. He pulled the map back out of his pocket and watched the Depute Headmistress walk back to her quarters. After about thirty minutes of her not moving on the map, Harry slipped on the invisibility cloak again and set off down towards the bathroom again.
Call it a hunch, but he was fairly certain that the Professor wouldn't get up to deal with him again. By now everybody was in bed- including those two Ravenclaws. Even Filch and Snape had stopped prowling about. Of course, if he was wrong and McGonagall did catch him out again, she would probably kill him; take more points from Gryffindor, assign more detentions and anything else she could think of.
Harry felt he had faced worse odds.
At 2 o'clock in the morning a very sleepy, very clean Harry Potter stumbled back through past a complaining Fat Lady. Barely remembering to close the entrance behind him, he shuffled up to his dormitory and collapsed onto his bed. He was asleep as soon as his glasses hit the bedside table.
I hope you enjoyed this mini-chapter, the next is Harry's detention with McGonagall and is mostly written. Should have it out by the end of the week!
This is just a small fic, probably only a 2 shot. In a way it's a prequel to my Sectumsempra Splits the School fic which I haven't abandoned. I've been really busy with Uni work and I wont be able to upload anything substantial until Christmas on either of my other stories. As a sort of compromise, the plan is to upload a couple of shorter things in the meantime as a break from all things medicine- my degree.