"We've been caught once already!" Mike Rowland hissed, trying to hunch lower on his seat so no-one would notice there was a Ravenclaw eating dinner at the Hufflepuff table.
"I've been caught," Colin pointed out. "I didn't see either of you in detention."
"We just need a different plan." Maisie served herself another three drumsticks.
"Have you by any chance been blocking those Bludgers with your head?" Mike asked. "Professor Granger saw Colin even though her back was turned!"
"I've thought about that." Maisie turned to look up at the teacher's table, where Professor Granger and Professor Potter were in deep conversation. "She must have some sort of alarm charm on the storeroom. Which means —" She waved a drumstick for emphasis. "— that if we learn the counter-charm, we can get away with it."
"I'm not doing the distraction again," Mike warned. "I don't mind writing the essay for whoever does, but I want to do well in Potions, and you know what it's like when a teacher decides you're stupid."
"Colin and I can't do it," Maisie said. "Because …" She gave Colin a meaningful look.
"It just slipped out!" Colin said for about the fortieth time. "I didn't mean to tell her anything, it just slipped out!"
"Besides, we need to get her right out of the classroom, to be on the safe side." Maisie took a decisive bite of her drumstick.
Mike stared at her. "How?"
She shrugged, chewed, and swallowed. "Something. An emergency. Like a Boggart or something."
"And do you have a tame Boggart?" Colin asked. "No? I didn't think so. And besides, Professor Potter would be called to deal with it, not Professor Granger."
"Not if it was right there, in the dungeons," Mike said slowly.
"We'd still need a Boggart."
"I bet there's one somewhere nearby. Hogwarts is full of dark places, and it's right next to the forest, after all."
"I am not going on some mad expedition to capture a Boggart," Colin said firmly. "I don't even know if it's possible, and even if it is, we don't know any of the spells we'd need."
"Alarm Charm counter-spell," Maisie said, holding up one finger. Another joined it. "Anti-Boggart Spell. Something to put the Boggart in, that can just be a box, and some way to carry it, that's Wingardium Leviosa and we know that. So that's two spells we need to learn. Mike, you can get Professor Potter to show you a Boggart spell. He likes you, and you're good at D.A.D.A. Colin, you can find anything in the Library. Find an anti-Alarm Charm spell and if you can't learn it yourself, ask Professor Flitwick."
Colin scowled. "And what are you going to do?"
She grinned at him. "Get a box."
His mind on Boggarts, Mike flinched as a shadow passed over him, and then blushed when he realised it was just an owl making a delivery. He turned to watch as it swooped towards the teacher's table and dropped its letter in front of Professor Potter.
"I bet it's from the Ministry," Colin said, watching as well. "He's, like, their top Auror already. I bet there's something no-one else can deal with and they've asked him to come and help."
"He looks too pleased for that," Mike said, as Professor Potter grinned at what he read and showed it to Professor Granger.
"I'd be pleased, if people were begging me to come and save them from something," Colin said, a wistful note in his voice.
"Shhh, he's coming this way!" Mike turned his attention back to his plate, trying to be invisible, as Potter left the dais and strode down between the students' tables towards the door, his letter in his hand.
"I told you it was urgent!" Colin hissed once he'd passed them.
"It wasn't, though," Maisie said, pausing half-way through her third drumstick. "I could see part of it. It said something about tea. I can't think of a Ministry emergency involving tea, can you?"
"Tea with the Minister?" Mike suggested.
"I bet that's it! I bet the Minister is asking for his advice."
Maisie shrugged. "Or someone's asking him to tea."
"Then why did he rush out?" Colin grinned at her. "Can't answer that, can you?"
She rolled her eyes. "Because he's gone to the owlery to send a reply, just possibly?" She pointed at his plate. "Finish that, and get on up the Library and look up that counter-charm."
"You're not the boss of me," Colin muttered, but he picked up his fork and started eating again.