I do not own Harry Potter. Enjoy!
Draco, Harry, and Hermione went to bed slightly earlier than the other first years and pretended to be asleep when they all came in for the night. Harry, before climbing into bed, grabbed his invisibility cloak, and hid it under his pillow. Both Harry and Draco, whose beds remained side by side, had their curtains pulled around their bed for privacy, and each were scheming up various ways to sneak out of the dorm and common room, and into the library.
Harry lay staring at the ceiling, trying his best not to fall asleep. He had gotten used to falling asleep soon after getting into bed, but unfortunately, Greg was taking an insane amount of time to fall asleep. Just as Harry was about to give up and just sleep, he heard Greg start snoring in a low drone.
Draco pushed back the curtains surrounding Harry's bed, a giant grin on his face. He motioned for a tired Harry to get out of bed. Harry threw the invisibility cloak over both of them, and they awkwardly waddled out of the room careful to not make any noise. To any outsider, it looked as if things were moving on their own. Once the boys were in the deserted common room, they decided to wait for Hermione to come out of the room. Luckily, they didn't have to wait long.
"If any of the girls ask, I was in the loo," Hermione whispered. She felt like a fool as she whispered to nothingness. For a second, Hermione thought she might have been early.
"Pst, Hermione," Harry called. "We're by the fireplace."
"Can you take off the cloak, please?"
Harry pulled off the cloak to reveal two grinning faces. He gestured to Hermione and as Hermione tiptoed over to them, Harry started to pull the cloak over him and Draco again. Hermione made it under the cloak. Once they made sure that the cloak was touching the ground on all sides, they started their extremely awkward waddle to the common room door.
The hallways were practically deserted after they made their way out of the dungeons and to the main part of Hogwarts. They came across Professor McGonagall on rounds on the main floor near the Great Hall, and had to quickly and quietly shuffle around her. However, a majority of the trip was spent quietly waddling through the halls, careful to not make a single sound. They were only 2 hallways away from the library now. So close.
The trio was excited now. They began to walk a little faster, eager to get to the library and do their research. Unfortunately, they literally ran into Mrs. Norris, Filch's orange haired cat. Mrs. Norris hissed and swiped her paw in the direction of the invisible group. Hermione's heart was pounding, as she was the one closest to Mrs. Norris. Hermione started to step back and ran into Draco, who also stumbled.
Luckily, neither of them fell over, but Mrs. Norris was definitely suspicious that there was someone or something there. The cat ran away in the opposite direction, most likely heading for Filch. Hermione turned to the boys and mouthed "Quickly!". They had to at least try to get to the restricted section. Making a little more noise than they probably should, they made the last part of the trip in an awkward waddle run. They quietly opened the library doors, tore off the cloak, and ran towards the restricted section.
"Let's split up," Draco whispered. "If something happens, Harry will find each of us and cover us with the invisibility cloak. Just stay out of Filch's view."
The trio split up into several directions. There was no doubt about it, they were panicking to try to find any information that might be useful. Hermione raced alongside a shelf; her wand lit up. She slowed when she reached the section solely about Dark Wizards.
Dark Wizards of the 12th Century. Dark Wizards of the 13th Century…. Hermione fingered along the books until she found Dark Wizards of the 20th Century. Hermione pulled the book off the shelf, glancing at the cover. This was her book. She opened it to the index. There were only a few major wizards in here, but each dark wizard or witch had at least 50 or more pages about them.
She moved her finger down the page until she found "Lord Voldemort: Commonly referred to as He Who Must Not Be Named, You Know Who, and the Dark Lord. Pages 170-287"
Hermione lit up with excitement. She knew that something was up with the Dark Lord, since Severus had asked them to research him. Hermione casually but quietly flipped to page 170. She saw that most of this section had been written by Dumbledore himself. She rolled her eyes. This would only pinpoint his darker characteristics. There would be nothing good about him here. However, she read on.
"Lord Voldemort, known by everyone as He Who Must Not Be Named or You Know Who, is not as terrifying as everyone has known him to be. He has murdered, tortured, and beat muggles, muggleborns, half blood, and even some of his own supporters, known as the Death Eaters. A list of each individual crime that he has committed is available on the next page. Warning: these crimes occur for multiple pages."
"A list of known supporters come after this list of crimes. Many people do not know of Lord Voldemort's past and history. His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle and he was named after his father, Tom Riddle, who was a muggle. He is the last descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and is the only known person who speaks Parsletounge. Tom Marvolo Riddle was raised as an orphan, and knew Hogwarts as his home. He was given- "
"I know you're in there," a wheezy voice called. It was Filch. "Come out, come out, wherever you are, and I can hang you from the chains in my office by your ankles."
Hermione suppressed a gasp, and quietly shut the book before placing it on the shelf. She had to find Draco, and most importantly Harry. She walked around to the back side of the bookshelf, dodging in between rows. Nearly 5 rows later, she saw Harry putting on the cloak. She tried to catch his attention by waving her hands like a madman. Luckily, Harry turned before the cloak was completely on, and Hermione quickly scuttled to under the invisibility cloak.
"We need to find Draco, now!" Hermione whispered in a low tone as to not attract attention from Filch or Mrs. Norris.
Harry nodded, and they set off towards the center of the restricted section, hoping to both avoid Filch and find Draco. Luckily, they were towards the back of the library, so they only got closer and closer to the exit. They needed to be as quiet as possible trying to find Draco, but they were nearing the end of the rows, and there was still no Draco. Suddenly, they heard a loud thump from the back of the library. Harry turned towards Hermione, wide eyed. That was most definitely Draco.
Filch laughed nastily. "I've caught you now, you wee little student."
Harry pulled Hermione the remaining few feet out of the restricted section.
"We need to go, now. Draco created that as a diversion," Harry whispered.
"How do you know?" Hermione asked, not wanting to leave Draco behind.
"I just do, know let's go!" Harry whisper-snapped.
Hermione and Harry ran out of the library, not caring who saw their feet at that moment. They stopped running when they arrived in the hallway that they had run into Mrs. Norris in. Hermione pulled Harry behind a statue so as to not be seen by any possible teachers or Filch.
"Did you find anything on either of them?" Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head. "I hadn't found any good books on their childhood, so I basically just got information about what they did as adults. I didn't have a lot of time to get information though. Filch got there fast."
"Same here. I got a little bit on his past, but not much on his childhood. Filch got there too quickly. It bugs me."
"Agreed. Wait, listen," Harry stopped. "Footsteps."
Hermione and Harry flung themselves back under the cloak and turned to peak out from behind the statue as to who was coming their direction. It was Quirrell. He didn't look nervous, in fact, he looked like a man on a mission. At that precise moment, Filch came around the corner holding Draco by his ear.
"Ah Professor," Filch wheezed. "I found this student in the restricted section of the library. Do you want to punish him, or can I?"
"M-m-mister M-Malfoy, what were y-you looking for?"
"I wanted a potions book to experiment with," Draco invented nonchalantly.
"D-detention, M-Malfoy. Tomorrow a-at seven," Quirrell stuttered.
"Very well, Professor," Filch said. "Back to your common room boy. I think we can trust you to not go anywhere else and try to receive another detention."
"Yes, sir," Draco mumbled, pretending to look saddened.
Professor Quirrell and Filch stood waiting for Draco to get around the corner. Once he disappeared, although Harry and Hermione were sure that he was just standing behind the corner, Quirrell spoke.
"Have you figured out how to get past that blasted dog yet, Argus?"
"No, sorry Professor. Hagrid refuses to tell me," Filch said. "He says that it's between him and Dumbledore, blah, blah."
"We'll figure it out soon, old man! I can only wait so long to deal with this. Plus, if you help me, the reward will be tremendous. Perhaps a magic wand in your future? Besides, stuttering every word gets old quickly. The quicker you get the information, the quicker we can escape this hellhole," Quirrell snarled.
Quirrell made a sudden movement, and Filch was pinned against the wall, Quirrell's hand around his neck.
"And if you don't…you'll have to answer to me. You have until the end of the year," Quirrell warned.
The purple turban on the top of his head unraveled slightly. Quirrell dropped Filch on the ground and swept away, clearly agitated.
"That man needs to calm down," Filch muttered. "Come, Mrs. Norris."
Filch started walking toward the statue, muttering nonsense to himself. Hermione panicked and grabbed Harry's arm. They walked as quietly as they could away from Filch. Hermione spotted a door further down the hallway. "In there" she mouthed to Harry, who simply nodded and followed her. A few minutes later, they found themselves in front of the locked door. Hermione pulled out her wand.
"Alohomora," she whispered.
The door opened with a quick click, and they squeezed into the room. It was an old, abandoned classroom. Harry pulled the cloak off of them and they both breathed a sigh of relief. What a night. Now they just had to get back to the common room without any troubles. That would not be easy, no matter what. An angry Filch was roaming the halls, and a phony professor was teaching them an important subject.
"What a mess tonight has been," Harry commented, simply to break the silence.
Hermione merely nodded. Her eyes were focused on a large, golden, floor-length mirror at the front of the room. The top of the mirror read "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". They had found the Mirror of Erised.