After dinner, Elizabeth had fallen asleep in the common room, waiting for midnight to come when they'd all sneak out again.
"Do you think we should wake her up?" Hermione asked.
"No, Hermione, we should let her sleep," said Ron sarcastically. "She's so much use to us that way."
"I'm still more useful in my sleep than you are awake," said Elizabeth, opening her eyes and stretching. "Where's Harry?"
Harry entered the common room holding the invisibility cloak. "I think we should try it on here to make sure all four of us fit."
"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair.
"Nothing," said Harry, quickly hiding the cloak behind his back.
Neville looked at their guilty faces. "You're going out again."
"Fine, yes, we are," said Elizabeth, exasperated. "But for a good reason."
"You'll get caught again."
"And what will they do to us then? Expel us? I'm not bothered by that, Neville. Some things are just more important than that."
"I won't let you go." Neville hurried to stand in front of the portrait hole.
"Get out of the way, Neville," Ron ordered.
"No, you told me to stand up to people!"
"Not to us."
"Neville, move before I make you," growled Elizabeth.
"But if you get caught you'll lose even more points for Gryffindor and ─"
"We wouldn't have lost any points in the first place if you had just followed the ruddy plan!"
Neville looked rebuked, but stood his ground.
Suddenly Hermione shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Neville's body went rigid. His arms snapped to his sides and his legs sprang together. His body swayed and then fell flat on his face. Hermione rushed to turn him over. He couldn't speak, the only thing that could move was his eyes.
"Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry," Hermione croaked.
"What did you do to him?" whispered Harry.
"She petrified him," said Elizabeth in terror. "You just petrified Neville, Hermione!"
"I ─ I didn't mean to," said Hermione shaken. "I had to do something."
"You didn't have to do that to him," said Ron.
"Well, now that Hermione's cursed our concerned friend, let's go." Elizabeth stepped over Neville. She bent down and whispered to him. "Don't worry, Neville, we'll be back before you know it."
They all stepped out the portrait hole leaving poor Neville alone on the floor. At every corner they thought they would run into Filch. Every statue's shadow made them jump and every breath of wind sounded like Peeves. They were sure they were going to get caught, but they continued on. They climbed the staircase to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so people would trip.
"Oh no, now what do we do?" whispered Ron.
"Shh!" Elizabeth hushed him, but it was too late.
"Who's there?" said Peeves narrowing his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you." His eyes darted around. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."
Elizabeth suddenly had an idea. She jumped out from under the invisibility cloak. "No Peeves, don't do that," she said, "Mr. Filch would surely have me expelled."
"Izzy Wizzy, should tell Filch, I should, for your own good," said Peeves in an angelic voice, a wicked smile forming.
"No fun in that," said Elizabeth. "It'd completely ruin my plan."
"Plan?"
"Oh yes." Elizabeth had Peeves exactly where she wanted him. "I wouldn't be able to get back at McGonagall for taking away all those points from Gryffindor if you did. I guess the dungbombs I asked Fred and George to pick up for me in Hogsmeade are now just going to go to waste. Go ahead Peeves, call Filch if you must."
"Dungbombs you say?"
Elizabeth pulled one from her pocket. "Want it?" Peeves' eyes glowed with delight.
Elizabeth began looking all around the empty corridor. When her eyes rested on where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were still standing under the invisibility cloak, she mouthed, "Go," to them.
They crept past Peeves as quietly as they could and made their way towards the forbidden corridor. They could hear Elizabeth still distracting Peeves.
"How can I be sure that you won't call Filch the moment I give you this?" she said.
The door to the third-floor corridor was already ajar. They pushed it open farther to enter, with a squeak. Peeves' attention snapped their way. Elizabeth suddenly took off the other way. Peeves followed after her, screaming, "STUDENT OUT OF BED!"
Elizabeth kept a good distance in front of Peeves, traversing down the corridors, making sharp turns in an attempt to lose him. He kept up with her, continuing to bellow for Filch. She bolted up a staircase, emerging on the fourth floor. Out of breath, she began slowing down involuntarily. Peeves was now gaining on her. Looking back she saw him glaring at her, wickedly laughing to himself. Elizabeth looked forward to see why he was laughing. Filch was running towards them, panting. She had nowhere to go. She was trapped between the two of them. She kept running from Peeves, only to get closer to a far worse doom. Out of desperation, she clasped the dungbomb firmly in her hand. She was only a few feet away from Filch when she stopped dead in her tracks. Filch kept advancing. Peeves swooped over her. She threw the dungbomb right in the middle of the two. As soon as it exploded in a whirl of noxious gas, she spun around and retreated the way she had come. She could hear Filch scream and curse as Peeves whooshed away from him, laughing manically.
On her way back to the forbidden corridor she had slowed down to a steady walk. She was cautiously scanning her surroundings in case Filch or Peeves were to jump out and catch her. She heard a low rustling sound. She crouched into the shadows. She saw Mrs. Norris shuffle into the light from one of the windows. She held her breath, trying not to give away her location. The cat paused. Elizabeth pulled another dungbomb from her pocket and rolled it towards Mrs. Norris. She batted in around before shooting it down the corridor and taking off after it.
"I've really got to thank Fred and George for those dungbombs," Elizabeth whispered to herself. "They really come in handy."
Elizabeth silently crept back towards the third corridor. Before she could reach it to help her friends with whatever they were facing through the trapdoor, she got a whiff of a horrid odour.
"I know you're around here, Wellington." It was Filch. No doubt Elizabeth was smelling the odour from the dungbomb she threw at him. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he said menacingly.
Elizabeth bit her lip as she stepped into plain view.
"I've got you now," said Filch, moving towards her. "Dungbombs are not allowed at Hogwarts."
She pulled the final dungbomb from Fred and George out of her pocket. "That makes them all the more fun."
Elizabeth held her breath and threw the dungbomb between her and Filch. It exploded over both of them and Elizabeth took the opportunity to run the opposite way, having depleted her arsenal. She ran down a staircase to the second floor. When sure she had lost Filch for the final time that night, she stopped to rest. She slid down against the cold stone wall to catch her breath, her legs aching. She heard the faint sound of crying coming from down the corridor. She thought it surely couldn't have been Filch, he was incapable of showing emotion. Elizabeth remembered Halloween when Hermione had hid in the toilet crying. She didn't want to feel responsible if whoever was crying in the bathroom wound up in trouble like Hermione had. She got up and made her way towards the sound. It was coming from the girls' toilet. She entered cautiously.
"Hello," she said timidly. "Is anyone in here?"
"Who wants to know?" said a voice sulkily.
"Um, I just wanted to make sure you're okay."
"Why do you care!"
A squat ghost of a girl flew over. She had lank hair and a seriously doleful demeanor. Silver tears were falling from her small, see-through eyes, that were hidden behind thick glasses.
"Oh, I didn't know ─"
"Know what?" said the ghost. "That poor Myrtle was here crying in the toilet!"
"No, I didn't ─"
"Don't lie to me. I know why you came in here. Everyone loves to make fun of Moaning Myrtle."
"I honestly didn't even know you existed."
"Oh, so now I'm not important enough for you to bother making fun of, is that it?"
"No! I mean, I don't want to make fun of you. I just came in here to see who was crying is all."
"Well, now you know so get out!"
"Gosh, you are the most unpleasant ghost I've ever had the misfortune to meet." Elizabeth ran from the toilet as Myrtle's sobs turned into cries of anger. She quickly climbed another staircase to get away from the gloomy ghost.
It had been a long night. She had been running for what seemed to be hours, diving in and out of corridors, hiding from Filch, Peeves, and Mrs. Norris. She was sure she had been all throughout the castle twice trying to avoid them, while keeping them on her trail so Filch wouldn't get wise to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the forbidden corridor. She felt more exhausted than exam week. Her legs ached with every step, her heart was beating out of her chest, her throat was dry, and her stomach was growling from hunger, probably from all the running. She just wanted to get back to the common room and wait for them to come back.
"Elizabeth!" cried Hermione as she reached the top of the staircase. "Oh, Elizabeth, come quick!"
"Why? What's wrong?" said Elizabeth nervously.
"It's Harry. Dumbledore just carried him off to the hospital wing!"
A/N: Quotes and plot from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Chapter Sixteen, Through the Trapdoor, pages 271 to 275.