"Harry Potter?
"No way!"
"Did you see him?"
"Yeah, I saw."
"Which way?"
Are you sure?"
"I told you, I saw!"
"Harry Bloody Potter's in the school!"
Hidden behind the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw in the Ravenclaw Tower, Harry Potter put his head down in his hands and groaned. 'How could everything have gone so horribly wrong?' he wondered. The night before, he, Hermione and Ron had planned everything to a tee. Because Grimmauld Place was compromised ever since that fiasco at the Ministry, Hermione's knowledge of a remote muggle area had led them to the Forest of Dean, where they had abided safely for the better part of a month with the help of many magical protective wards. Here, as with Slytherin's locket, the group had spent most of their time devising the perfect stratagem for their excursion into Hogwarts, which seemed the most logical destination next on the list according to Harry, who knew not where the other Horcruxes resided. They had drawn a map sketching the most secret passageways up to Ravenclaw Tower where though Harry wasn't sure, he thought they may acquire some clue as to the diadem of Ravenclaw's whereabouts. Of course, not the entire foursome would go there (which included Luna Lovegood who had been with the group ever since Malfoy Manor) but merely Harry and of course Luna, who was a Ravenclaw and therefore knew the way around. Ron and Hermione had been sent to find the ghost of Rowena Ravenclaw in the unlikely event that she would be willing to grace them with any information. But that was where it had all gone wrong.
Harry and Luna had used the invisibility cloak for concealment whilst leaving Ron and Hermione with the latter's remarkable ability to perform disillusionment charms. Harry did not realize until later that great wisdom would have been shown in supplying the group's pair that was taking the more secret and unexplored passageways with anything that was more foolproof than an invisibility cloak. Though Harry did have the Marauder's Map with him as well as a copy of the one they had sketched which displayed naught but their distinct route, some of the off paths they were taking were as yet unchartered. Thus, traveling down one of the passageways which was dank and so dark that they could hardly see through the gloom, it was no surprise when Harry and Luna figured out that the corridor had been bewitched, and they lost the cloak as they battled the live, predatory bats attacking the, and ensuing Devil's Snare behind them (into which the floor was quickly turning) for their lives. When they reached the end of the corridor, they ran the rest of the way up the Tower following their own instincts as they had lost both maps as well as the cloak. And of course, in spite of the fact that they ran as fast as they could (still being pursued by flying bats) and tried to stick still to the deserted corridors, the yells of 'Harry Potter!' on every side of them and hurried footsteps behind them told Harry too plainly that they were seen.
Harry felt a stir from beside him. He glanced up to see Luna serenely observing the statue, running her hand along the edges as if willing it to reveal some of its unknown secrets. He stood up shakily.
"Luna we really should- "
"Shhh." She put a finger up to her lips to shush him. She had an expression on her face of utter bemusement, as though astonished that by simply looking at the statue they couldn't acquire exactly what they need to. After a few more minutes of this seemingly ridiculous spectacle and once Harry's breathing finally began to slow he felt himself growing impatient.
"Luna we really need to go back and find- " But before he could finish his sentence the click of the door behind him caused him to halt. Without a second thought, he pushed Luna further behind the statue and forced her into a crouching position as he himself knelt beside her, waiting. He searched frantically around his range of vision for the source of the noise, but oddly enough, the deserted Ravenclaw Common Room they had entered remained deserted. Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well I don't know what that was all about but we should really- " Yet again however, for the third time that night his words were censored, though this time not through any obvious interruption. Confused, Harry tried to glance over at Luna only to find that he could not make his body comply with the command. And then he understood. He had been petrified. Only one person he knew could have manipulated them with such stealth, and as Harry looked up at the body that was materializing slowly from underneath his own invisibility cloak, fury began pumping through every vein and vessel in his body, obliterating every coherent thought. His feelings were outmatched only by the visage of the man who glared down at him with loathing etched into every line and feature of his face- Severus Snape.