Mistaken
What happened next Harry had forgotten for his entire body was trembling with both rage and freight. What is he going to do? Harry asked himself, the entire way to McGonagal's office.
"She's not in her office, so wait here while I go find her. Any funny business and I'll have you out of Hogwarts before you can say Dragon Liver! Do I make myself clear?" Without an answer, Snape swept back down the hall and out of sight. However, Malfoy and his cronies lingered behind.
"Such a pity," Malfoy said with fake concern, "Out of all this time I've been trying to get you in trouble and here you are handing me the opporotunity. You really are a git!" Harry took out his wand and pointed it directly at Malfoy's heart.
"Harry, no!" Ginny pleaded. Harry hesitated then lowered his wand with a heaving sigh.
"That's right, get your little Weasley girlfriend to make you come to sense!" Malfoy snickered.
"What?" Harry quickly asked.
"You heard me! Don't play stupid. I saw you and Weasley here exchanging spit in the library."
"What?!" Harry spoke even louder.
"Harry, calm down," Ginny cooed. "Malfoy, you're clearly mistaken. Harry and I weren't-"
"Oh, right. I'd bet a dragon's egg on it you weren't!" he replied in mockery.
"Are you sure about that bet, Malfoy?" Harry hissed, remembering his 4th year when he had to steal an egg from a dragon for the Triwizard Tournament.
Just then, Snape came back. He still had a sour look upon his face. Harry knew instantly he was still furious.
"It seems that she is in the Gryffindor Tower," he snarled. "We shall all go then."
"All of us?" asked Malfoy in bewilderment. "Inside the Gryffindor Tower?"
"Yes," Snape responded, "all of us!" Harry couldn't believe his ears! Malfoy in the Gryffindor Tower? He'd be ripped to shreads, and not by Fluffy. Malfoy was hated to the extreme by all of Harry's fellow Gryffindors and he knew that if Malfoy stepped onto his territory, he would be destroyed.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, Potter!" Snape demanded. Harry just realized where he was and frowned. He started wondering how he got into this mess. McGonnagal - Hermione - library - Ginny - Dean - Malfoy - Snape - McGonnagal. It was a complete nightmare. Not only was he not doing what he was suppose to do, but was going to get in trouble for something he didn't even do! He was both sad and distraught.
Harry shuffled blindly behind the rest until they reached the painting of the fat lady. He looked up only to find Snape staring at him.
"Well?" he snarled.
"Well what?" Harry asked irritably.
"Say the password!" Snape told him. Harry gasped.
"The password? But then Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle would know it!" Harry retorted.
"Passwords are changed every week! It's not like they'd," Snape then chuckled at himself, "do any harm to the Gryffindor Tower." Harry glared at him and his Slytherin students. He hated them all. He just wished there was no Slytherin or that Malfoy and Snape had never been born, but then again it had happened and it was time to face it.
"Say the password," Snape repeated.
"Rumble-nickers," Harry mumbled, and the portrait of the fat lady flew open, exposing all of Gryffindor and the head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall. She stood there in mid-conversation with her mouth hanging open, a look of shock upon her face.
"What on earth are you doing?!" she cried, rushing up to the Slytherins as if to push them out of the portrait. Sure enough, like Harry had thought, the Gryffindors looked at Malfoy through slits, breathing through their flaring nostrils and positioning themselves like an army about to attack on command.
"Potter here has done something wrong. Unless you would like me to say in front of your entire house, maybe you should ask him yourself," Snape crossed his arms in a snotty fashion, showing a look of contentment on his face.
"Slytherins should NOT be in the Gryffindor House! Professor Snape, what were you thinking?" squealed Professor McGonagall, shooing the three non-Gryffindors out.
"They are my witnesses."
"Witnesses to what?" McGonagall listened to him finally, her hand grasping firmly to Crabbe's shoulder. The Gryffindors looked at him. It was a perfect sight, Crabbe dangling from Professor McGonagall's arm like some sort of pudgy punching bag. Oh how they longed to have their fists eat at his enormous flesh. But they held back.
"I'll tell you what happened," Ginny cut in.
"Miss Weasley?" Professor McGonagall's eyes grew to large saucers and her face twisted unbelievingly. She let go of Crabbe's shoulder.
"I'll tell you what happened," Ginny repeated, "as soon as they get out."
"I'm afraid Mr. Malfoy's story will be needed also," reacted Snape immediately, "just in case their stories are false." Harry looked over at Malfoy. He was enjoying every minute inside the Gryffindor Tower, smirking and moving his bright eyes wildly around the common room like a child staring at ice cream. Harry felt like taking a dagger and stabbing Malfoy's eyes out.
"Very well," McGonagall sighed, "Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, and you three come with me." She motioned for them and they followed her up a flight of stairs into Harry's dormitory. Malfoy's smile stretched from ear to ear when he figured out where he was.
To Harry's suprise, Hedwig was perched upon the window sill, rapping at the glass. Harry went to the window and unlocked it. His snowy owl flew inside and landed upon his shoulder, stretching her leg out for him to untie the letter attatched to it. He did so and gave her a knut and a pat before she flew off out the window once more, hooting happily to herself.
"You can open that later," McGonagall mentioned to him.
"Yes Professor," Harry nodded as he slipped the note under his pillow. Malfoy's eyes grew even wider with hunger. He knew where Harry slept, and that wasn't a good thing. His eyes searched all over the bed, inside every sngle crevace, looking for imperfections.
"Now Miss Weasly," McGonagall said, clearing her throat, "please in your own words describe what the situation is."
"I...er.." she started, "I was in the library..er.. crying, and Harry found me."
"Crying?"
"Yes, Professor," Ginny answered respectfully, "You see.. I.. er.. was afraid that... I would fail the O.W.L.s and I would never be able to graduate from Hogwarts." Considering this was not Hermione, it should have been very obvious she was lying. But either McGonagall was a very good actress or she believed every word she said because she had a worried expression tacked to her skull.
"Harry found me," Ginny continued, "and he said that it was nothing to worry about. He gave me a hug and told me to stop crying and that's when Malfoy came in. He thought it was something else."
"Mr. Potter, is this true?" their head asked. Harry nodded. McGonagall rounded upon Malfoy and prodded him to tell his side of the story.
"Well Professor," he smiled deviously, "I was walking to the library to get some light reading done (Harry and Ginny rolle their eyes at this) and I caught Potter here in a snogging session with Weasley." Malfoy leaned against the wall and grinned.
"Is that so?"
"Yes Professor."
"I think you may have just come in to the library at the wrong time and weren't there long enough before running to a teacher. Am I warm?"
"Well.. uh..."
"And in turn, you deliberately told Professor Snape what you thought you saw instead of asking what was going on in the first place. Am I correct, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes, but-"
"Maybe next time you should be more careful in your actions before the consequences are more severe than points taken away from your house."
"What points taken away?"
"Ten points from Slytherin for sheer stupidity. And five more points will be taken away if you argue about it!" Malfoy started to open his mouth to object but thought it best to keep it closed. Harry and Ginny were the ones to smile now. Malfoy tarted bluntly at the floor, while Crabbe and Goyle stared dumbly off into space. Professor McGonagall had her eyes narrowed onto Malfoy.
"All is settled?" she asked the mouthless group. "Then let's go back downstairs and you three Slytherins need to get out of the Gryffindor Tower." Harry couldn't help but muffle his laughter. He looked over at Ginn. She was smiling and looked incredibly relieved.
They all went back downstairs and the Slytherins went out through the portrait as told. Snape lost all concentration when he found out that Harry wasn't punihed at all, butpoints were taken away from Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. When they had gone, Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.
"Miss Granger was not in the library I assume?" she asked Harry.
"No, Professor."
"Well if you see her, please tell her to report at once to me. It is quite urgent I speak with her. And you too, Mr. Weasley." She glanced at Ron, who was eyeing Ginny with sour eyes.
"Wha'? Oh yeah... right," he responded haphazardly.
Prfessor McGonagall left the Gryffindor Tower, leaving Harry with a bunch of Gryffindors asking him all kinds of questions about what he had done this time.
"Nothing, nothing," he would respond, but they didn't seem to hear it. Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye, Ron heading back up the stairs to the boys' dorm. Harry followed, leaving the gossiping group behind him.
"Ron?" Harry asked him when he was sure they were completely alone in the room.
"Yeah," Ron responded, collapsing onto his bed and giving a huge sigh.
"I know about Ginny. I caught her snogging with Dean in the library when I went to go look for Hermione."
"At least I don't have to explain to you why I'm mad at her now," Ron said through his pillow.
"Er," Harry said, remembering the night before when he caught Ron and Hermione talking about their relationship together. He didn't know why, but he was afraid to see them together. He knew Ron liked Hermione but he didn't know that Hermione even remotely noticed he was around until he made a comment she didn't like. For a while, he thought Hermione liked him! It was a crazy thought, of course, but it was a lot more logical than Hermione liking Ron. Right?
"Er..." Harry muttered again. "Would you like to go down to breakfast? You can eat the lot." Ron paused and shook his head in his pillow. "Alright then. I'll bring you something up." Harry went back down the stairs and through the parting crowd toward the portrait of the fat lady. Right before he touched the back of the canvas, someone tugged on his cloak, sending him sideways into a wall. They let go and leaned toward him.
"Thanks, Harry," the person whispered in his ear. They lingered there for a moment, then turned and left. Harry looked behind him. Strolling away as if nothing had happend, was a red haired girl of fifteen, wiping tears from her eyes.
"Your welcome, Ginny," Harry replied softly, though he knew that she could not hear him. Sighing, Harry pushed open the portrait and stepped out into the hallway and walked down the long corridor. He went down a few flights of stairs, barely making it down one for it tried to change while he was standing on it; then proceeded to the Great Hall.
What happened in the Gryffindor Tower Harry could not believe. Why was Professor McGonagall so lenient? Why didn't anyone get detention for the fight with Malfoy? Surely, for something as great as that someone would have been punished! But no one was. It was as if the world has stopped and every teacher was replaced by someone unknown from the other side of the earth. What had happened? Had the teachers of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry gone soft? It was practically impossible to think about as Harry walked up the side of the Gryffindor table, where most of his house now was. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. He took a napkin and gathered some food items to take back to Ron. Grabbing two cups of juice, the napkin, and a waffle, Harry strode out of the Great Hall and back up the many flights of stairs to the Gryffindor Tower.
What happened next Harry had forgotten for his entire body was trembling with both rage and freight. What is he going to do? Harry asked himself, the entire way to McGonagal's office.
"She's not in her office, so wait here while I go find her. Any funny business and I'll have you out of Hogwarts before you can say Dragon Liver! Do I make myself clear?" Without an answer, Snape swept back down the hall and out of sight. However, Malfoy and his cronies lingered behind.
"Such a pity," Malfoy said with fake concern, "Out of all this time I've been trying to get you in trouble and here you are handing me the opporotunity. You really are a git!" Harry took out his wand and pointed it directly at Malfoy's heart.
"Harry, no!" Ginny pleaded. Harry hesitated then lowered his wand with a heaving sigh.
"That's right, get your little Weasley girlfriend to make you come to sense!" Malfoy snickered.
"What?" Harry quickly asked.
"You heard me! Don't play stupid. I saw you and Weasley here exchanging spit in the library."
"What?!" Harry spoke even louder.
"Harry, calm down," Ginny cooed. "Malfoy, you're clearly mistaken. Harry and I weren't-"
"Oh, right. I'd bet a dragon's egg on it you weren't!" he replied in mockery.
"Are you sure about that bet, Malfoy?" Harry hissed, remembering his 4th year when he had to steal an egg from a dragon for the Triwizard Tournament.
Just then, Snape came back. He still had a sour look upon his face. Harry knew instantly he was still furious.
"It seems that she is in the Gryffindor Tower," he snarled. "We shall all go then."
"All of us?" asked Malfoy in bewilderment. "Inside the Gryffindor Tower?"
"Yes," Snape responded, "all of us!" Harry couldn't believe his ears! Malfoy in the Gryffindor Tower? He'd be ripped to shreads, and not by Fluffy. Malfoy was hated to the extreme by all of Harry's fellow Gryffindors and he knew that if Malfoy stepped onto his territory, he would be destroyed.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, Potter!" Snape demanded. Harry just realized where he was and frowned. He started wondering how he got into this mess. McGonnagal - Hermione - library - Ginny - Dean - Malfoy - Snape - McGonnagal. It was a complete nightmare. Not only was he not doing what he was suppose to do, but was going to get in trouble for something he didn't even do! He was both sad and distraught.
Harry shuffled blindly behind the rest until they reached the painting of the fat lady. He looked up only to find Snape staring at him.
"Well?" he snarled.
"Well what?" Harry asked irritably.
"Say the password!" Snape told him. Harry gasped.
"The password? But then Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle would know it!" Harry retorted.
"Passwords are changed every week! It's not like they'd," Snape then chuckled at himself, "do any harm to the Gryffindor Tower." Harry glared at him and his Slytherin students. He hated them all. He just wished there was no Slytherin or that Malfoy and Snape had never been born, but then again it had happened and it was time to face it.
"Say the password," Snape repeated.
"Rumble-nickers," Harry mumbled, and the portrait of the fat lady flew open, exposing all of Gryffindor and the head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall. She stood there in mid-conversation with her mouth hanging open, a look of shock upon her face.
"What on earth are you doing?!" she cried, rushing up to the Slytherins as if to push them out of the portrait. Sure enough, like Harry had thought, the Gryffindors looked at Malfoy through slits, breathing through their flaring nostrils and positioning themselves like an army about to attack on command.
"Potter here has done something wrong. Unless you would like me to say in front of your entire house, maybe you should ask him yourself," Snape crossed his arms in a snotty fashion, showing a look of contentment on his face.
"Slytherins should NOT be in the Gryffindor House! Professor Snape, what were you thinking?" squealed Professor McGonagall, shooing the three non-Gryffindors out.
"They are my witnesses."
"Witnesses to what?" McGonagall listened to him finally, her hand grasping firmly to Crabbe's shoulder. The Gryffindors looked at him. It was a perfect sight, Crabbe dangling from Professor McGonagall's arm like some sort of pudgy punching bag. Oh how they longed to have their fists eat at his enormous flesh. But they held back.
"I'll tell you what happened," Ginny cut in.
"Miss Weasley?" Professor McGonagall's eyes grew to large saucers and her face twisted unbelievingly. She let go of Crabbe's shoulder.
"I'll tell you what happened," Ginny repeated, "as soon as they get out."
"I'm afraid Mr. Malfoy's story will be needed also," reacted Snape immediately, "just in case their stories are false." Harry looked over at Malfoy. He was enjoying every minute inside the Gryffindor Tower, smirking and moving his bright eyes wildly around the common room like a child staring at ice cream. Harry felt like taking a dagger and stabbing Malfoy's eyes out.
"Very well," McGonagall sighed, "Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, and you three come with me." She motioned for them and they followed her up a flight of stairs into Harry's dormitory. Malfoy's smile stretched from ear to ear when he figured out where he was.
To Harry's suprise, Hedwig was perched upon the window sill, rapping at the glass. Harry went to the window and unlocked it. His snowy owl flew inside and landed upon his shoulder, stretching her leg out for him to untie the letter attatched to it. He did so and gave her a knut and a pat before she flew off out the window once more, hooting happily to herself.
"You can open that later," McGonagall mentioned to him.
"Yes Professor," Harry nodded as he slipped the note under his pillow. Malfoy's eyes grew even wider with hunger. He knew where Harry slept, and that wasn't a good thing. His eyes searched all over the bed, inside every sngle crevace, looking for imperfections.
"Now Miss Weasly," McGonagall said, clearing her throat, "please in your own words describe what the situation is."
"I...er.." she started, "I was in the library..er.. crying, and Harry found me."
"Crying?"
"Yes, Professor," Ginny answered respectfully, "You see.. I.. er.. was afraid that... I would fail the O.W.L.s and I would never be able to graduate from Hogwarts." Considering this was not Hermione, it should have been very obvious she was lying. But either McGonagall was a very good actress or she believed every word she said because she had a worried expression tacked to her skull.
"Harry found me," Ginny continued, "and he said that it was nothing to worry about. He gave me a hug and told me to stop crying and that's when Malfoy came in. He thought it was something else."
"Mr. Potter, is this true?" their head asked. Harry nodded. McGonagall rounded upon Malfoy and prodded him to tell his side of the story.
"Well Professor," he smiled deviously, "I was walking to the library to get some light reading done (Harry and Ginny rolle their eyes at this) and I caught Potter here in a snogging session with Weasley." Malfoy leaned against the wall and grinned.
"Is that so?"
"Yes Professor."
"I think you may have just come in to the library at the wrong time and weren't there long enough before running to a teacher. Am I warm?"
"Well.. uh..."
"And in turn, you deliberately told Professor Snape what you thought you saw instead of asking what was going on in the first place. Am I correct, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes, but-"
"Maybe next time you should be more careful in your actions before the consequences are more severe than points taken away from your house."
"What points taken away?"
"Ten points from Slytherin for sheer stupidity. And five more points will be taken away if you argue about it!" Malfoy started to open his mouth to object but thought it best to keep it closed. Harry and Ginny were the ones to smile now. Malfoy tarted bluntly at the floor, while Crabbe and Goyle stared dumbly off into space. Professor McGonagall had her eyes narrowed onto Malfoy.
"All is settled?" she asked the mouthless group. "Then let's go back downstairs and you three Slytherins need to get out of the Gryffindor Tower." Harry couldn't help but muffle his laughter. He looked over at Ginn. She was smiling and looked incredibly relieved.
They all went back downstairs and the Slytherins went out through the portrait as told. Snape lost all concentration when he found out that Harry wasn't punihed at all, butpoints were taken away from Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. When they had gone, Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.
"Miss Granger was not in the library I assume?" she asked Harry.
"No, Professor."
"Well if you see her, please tell her to report at once to me. It is quite urgent I speak with her. And you too, Mr. Weasley." She glanced at Ron, who was eyeing Ginny with sour eyes.
"Wha'? Oh yeah... right," he responded haphazardly.
Prfessor McGonagall left the Gryffindor Tower, leaving Harry with a bunch of Gryffindors asking him all kinds of questions about what he had done this time.
"Nothing, nothing," he would respond, but they didn't seem to hear it. Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye, Ron heading back up the stairs to the boys' dorm. Harry followed, leaving the gossiping group behind him.
"Ron?" Harry asked him when he was sure they were completely alone in the room.
"Yeah," Ron responded, collapsing onto his bed and giving a huge sigh.
"I know about Ginny. I caught her snogging with Dean in the library when I went to go look for Hermione."
"At least I don't have to explain to you why I'm mad at her now," Ron said through his pillow.
"Er," Harry said, remembering the night before when he caught Ron and Hermione talking about their relationship together. He didn't know why, but he was afraid to see them together. He knew Ron liked Hermione but he didn't know that Hermione even remotely noticed he was around until he made a comment she didn't like. For a while, he thought Hermione liked him! It was a crazy thought, of course, but it was a lot more logical than Hermione liking Ron. Right?
"Er..." Harry muttered again. "Would you like to go down to breakfast? You can eat the lot." Ron paused and shook his head in his pillow. "Alright then. I'll bring you something up." Harry went back down the stairs and through the parting crowd toward the portrait of the fat lady. Right before he touched the back of the canvas, someone tugged on his cloak, sending him sideways into a wall. They let go and leaned toward him.
"Thanks, Harry," the person whispered in his ear. They lingered there for a moment, then turned and left. Harry looked behind him. Strolling away as if nothing had happend, was a red haired girl of fifteen, wiping tears from her eyes.
"Your welcome, Ginny," Harry replied softly, though he knew that she could not hear him. Sighing, Harry pushed open the portrait and stepped out into the hallway and walked down the long corridor. He went down a few flights of stairs, barely making it down one for it tried to change while he was standing on it; then proceeded to the Great Hall.
What happened in the Gryffindor Tower Harry could not believe. Why was Professor McGonagall so lenient? Why didn't anyone get detention for the fight with Malfoy? Surely, for something as great as that someone would have been punished! But no one was. It was as if the world has stopped and every teacher was replaced by someone unknown from the other side of the earth. What had happened? Had the teachers of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry gone soft? It was practically impossible to think about as Harry walked up the side of the Gryffindor table, where most of his house now was. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. He took a napkin and gathered some food items to take back to Ron. Grabbing two cups of juice, the napkin, and a waffle, Harry strode out of the Great Hall and back up the many flights of stairs to the Gryffindor Tower.