Chapter 10- The Break-In

Contains direct and indirect quotes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I do not claim to own any of them.

Harry had a very strange dream. He was walking through a forest, his Firebolt over his shoulder, following something silvery-white. It was winding it's way through the trees ahead, and he could only catch glimpses of if between the leaves. Anxious to catch up with if he sped up, but as he moved faster, so did his quarry. Harry broke into a run, and ahead he heard hooves gathering speed. Now he was running flat out, and ahead he could hear galloping. Then he turned a corner and-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Harry woke as though he'd been suddenly hit in the face.

Disoriented in the total darkness, he fumbled with his hangings- he could hear movements around him, and Seamus Finnegan's voice from the other side of the room: "What's going on?"

Harry thought he heard the dormitory door slam. At last finding the divide in his curtains, he ripped them back, and at the same moment, Dean Thomas Dean Thomas lit his lamp.

Ron was sitting up in bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"

"What?"

"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! I tell you, he was here!"

They all scrambled out of bed; Harry reached the dormitory door first, and they sprinted back down the staircase. Doors opened behind them, and sleepy voices called after them.

"Who shouted?"

"What're you doing?"

Ling stopped Harry in his tracks. "Is Ron Weasley alright?"

Once seeing the common room was deserted, Harry calmed down a bit.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

Professor McGonagall came in and everyone began to argue over wether it was real or not.

". . . My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

"Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw-"

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man into Gryffindor Tower?"

"Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan.

There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room.

"You- you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But-but the password!"

"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.

"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy-slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.

As soon as McGonagall was gone, he fainted. Ling just barely caught him before he hit the floor. "I will drag him up to our dorm," Ling muttered. "And stay with him until he wakes up. By the way, you might want to worry about Ron Weasley." He gestured over to a corner, where Ron was rocking back forth trying to calm himself. Percy acted first, kneeling beside his brother and apologising for not believing him. After that, the twins sat down on either side of the two and tried to make jokes at first, but it soon turned into a rather uncomfortable silence. Ginny sat down with them soon after. Hermione and Harry looked at each other, wanting to join them, but there wasn't much room in the tiny, cramped corner. Besides, Harry thought bitterly, I'm the reason this happened. Black would've never targeted him if he wasn't my best mate.

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night.

()()()()()

Chapter Ten! Huzzah!

I hope it was good. I really enjoyed writing the little moments with Ron and his brothers. Especially Percy. It's not touched on very often. Tell me what you think!