Chapter 8

When Halloween finally came, the only person Emma was talking to was Lisa. Mandy and the others were still making fun of her, but she ignored it. Terry was still quiet when everyone was making fun of her. At the feast that night, the Great Hall was completely unrecognizable. There were real fluttering bats and floating candles and giant pumpkins twice the size of Hagrid.

"This is amazing!" said Lisa once all the Ravenclaw first years had crowded into the Hall.

"It doesn't look the same at all!" Mandy was saying to Padma.

"Oh, look!" said Padma. "It's my sister Parvati! I haven't seen her for ages! Hi Parvati!" She waved to a girl at the Gryffindor table that looked exactly the same as her, except that Padma's hair was in pigtails and Parvati's in braids.

Parvati waved back to her when the Slytherin first years began coming in. Lisa spotted Draco laughing at the decorations. She showed Emma, who said:

"I think the decorations are magnificent!" and looked away.

"Where's Snape?" asked Terry.

"Professor Snape" corrected a voice. Terry whirled around and Professor Snape was standing behind him.

"Oh, h-hello s-sir!" he stammered. "I-I was just w-wondering where you were—s-since you w-weren't s-sitting at the t-table with the o-others!"

"Maybe," snarled Snape, "I was cleaning up dung-bombs that had been let of earlier in the dungeons very near my office. Tell me, Boot, do you have any idea whatsoever how they got their or who let them off?"

"N-no, s-sir!" Terry said, now starting to turn red.

"Get up and follow me!" he yelled. A few people around them looked over their shoulders to see what was going on.

Lisa gave Terry a little nudge and he stood up next to Snape.

"You'd better come too, Moons." said Snape and Phil, also turning red (actually a bright shade of pink to be more specific) stood up and followed Snape, not daring to say a word to Terry. Draco started laughing from the Slytherin table. Lisa glared at him.

"Poor Terry and Phil!" said Emma.

"You're the last person I expected to hear that from!" said Lisa, surprised. "After all they did to you? I mean, after all Phil did to you. Have you noticed Terry doesn't say anything whenever the others make fun of you? I think he fancies you!"

Just then, someone burst into the Great Hall.

"Troll in the dungeons! Troll!" It was Quirrell. "Thought you ought to know!" He fainted.

There was a moment of silence. Then—

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

"TROLL!"

"OH MY GOSH!"

"HOW—WHEN—AAHH!"

"SILENCE!!!" It was Dumbledore. He had gotten to his feet and was yelling so loudly—yet, he didn't seem in the least bit upset or angry.

"Prefects, take the students back to your house common room. Teachers, follow me to the dungeons."

Everyone moved as fast as possible.

"Those Slytherins should be in no rush." said Mandy. "I heard their common room is in the dungeons."

"Keep close together and no one wander off!" said Penelope, warningly.

Someone very familiar that was not from Ravenclaw appeared and stood next to Lisa.

"Harry!"

"Shh!"

"What are you doing here? You're going to get in big trouble when Flitwick—I mean, McGonagall finds out you're here!"

"It's Hermione!" he said.

"Granger?"

"Yes! She's in the dungeons! I can slip off that passageway with Ron; I have to act like I'm part of a house. That's a shortcut to the dungeons. It's a secret passageway. There, that portrait of a horse. The password is Honeydukes. Use it when you're running late to Potions. See you!" He and Ron hurried off to the horse portrait, in which the horse was lazily slumped on the grass, snoring.

"Honeydukes!" said Ron. The horse jerked awake and the portrait opened. Harry waved at Lisa and disappeared in the portrait hole.

"Lisa, what are you staring at?" asked Emma. Lisa, who was looking at the horse grazing on the grass, said:

"Oh, nothing, I thought the horse was doing cartwheels for a second. Silly me!"

"Hurry up! Penelope and the others are getting farther away!"

She was right, they had started going up a staircase and once they had reached the top and Lisa and Emma were still in the middle, it moved.

"Oh no!" cried Lisa.

"Penelope!" But it was too late. They had already disappeared behind the knight.

"What are we going to do?" asked Lisa.

"I don't know! It was you who got us into this mess in the first place!"

"Yeah well it was you who decided to wait for me!"

"Would you rather be here alone or with me?" Lisa didn't answer.

"Let's just get off over here. We can find another way to the common room." They got of the staircase when it stopped by a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"It's the Fat Lady!" cheered Lisa.

"So?"

"The Gryffindor common room—whoops!"

"The Gryffindor common room?"

"Don't tell anyone! Susan and I accidentally stumbled upon it the day we had to stay in for Potions. I promised Harry I wouldn't tell anyone. Do you?"

"I promise."

"Thank you! I know the way to the Great Hall from here. We can go there and then start going to our dormitory."

"Let's go before the troll gets here."

They hurried down the stairs to the deserted Great Hall.

"Look out, it's a prefect!" whispered Lisa, as they hid behind the door as Percy Weasley passed by them.

"Let's go!" They ran up the steps and were just about to turn the corner when—

"Sneaking off after bedtime, are you?" It was Snape. "That's the fifth one we've had sneaking off tonight."

As he said this, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stepped out next to him.

"I was just escorting these three to their common room. Silly, they are, they thought they could take on the troll alone—"

"Which we did!" Lisa heard Harry mutter under his breath.

"—and then we just happen to run into you two. Tell me, did you also think you could take on the troll? Or were you sneaking off to steal something from somewhere, my office, perhaps?"

"Uh, we got separated from our group, and we—"

"Silence! 5 points from Ravenclaw, each! And you will all serve detention in—"

"I think they've all been through a rough enough night, Severus." It was Dumbledore.

"Yes, very well. I should guess that you all know the way to your dormitories. Go!"

No one waited to see what happened next; they all dashed off and only stopped to rest after Snape and Dumbledore were out of sight.

"That was a close one!" said Ron.

"I know we're really lucky Dumbledore turned up." said Emma.

"By the way, what were you two doing?" asked Hermione suspiciously.

"We just got separated, like I said. That's all." said Lisa, avoiding eye contact with Harry.

"Well, we'd better get off to bed then. Good night." said Harry.

"Bye."

"See you."

"Night."

"Good-bye."